Nix, Then and Now
by UnFinished1995
Summary: After her mother disappeared 6 years ago and her new rich family always leaving, Nix feels abandoned by everyone she knows which forces her to act up and rebel. Her rebelling has cost her her third private school and she is now going to be at a public school where she meets Yugi and the gang. Everything is cool till Yugi's alter ego takes a fancy to her. YamixOC Title might change
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter 1

Prologue

"Please!" Nix could hear her uncle beg from outside the principal's office. Her uncle and aunt had been in there for a little over an hour and a half begging for the principal to let her stay in her current school. This was her third offense. She didn't really know what she had done wrong to land here for the third time; with her luck, she probably offended someone girl with the color of her hair.

She sighed and looked around the principal's secretary's office as the bell rang. Girls from her home room walked past the doors, pointed and snickered to their selves. She clenched the chair she was sitting on and punctured holes through it with her nails. She grumbled to herself.

"... I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Offerman," the principal said opening his door. His voice boomed through the hallways now. "Miss. Nix just isn't allowed to stay with us now. We have a very strict-"

"Rule Breaking Policy," her uncle snapped. He stood up and rushed out the door his wife close behind him. "We've heard it all before! Come Nix." She watched him leave then stood up and motioned fare-well to her now ex-principal. She turned around when he spoke.

"Nix, though this school's path and your path are now separating, I hope that you find your way in life." She turned her head towards him and glared; her uncle shouted for her and she left.

"What was the reason this time, Nix?" Nina asked. Nix shrugged and looked at her 10 year old cousin. The little girl still had her uniform on and was lying on the floor doing her homework. Nix once went to her cousin's school when she was younger. She stayed in that school the longest till she was kicked out.

"How many is this school?" Nina asked. Nix held up three fingers. Her cousin went silent. Downstairs her parents were arguing about their adopted child. Nix and Nina mouthed the fight.

"The girl is a mess, honey!" Nix's aunt yelled. Nina was mouthed the mom. "She's going to get in worse trouble and end up bringing down your reputation. Send her elsewhere!"

"And what about Nina?" Nix mouthed her uncle. "Our child has grown up to my sister's daughter! And you speak of my reputation?! How would it look if the people found out I shipped a family member to some broken home or just kicked her out. Hell! Military school would ruin me also!"

Nina opened her mouth for the next part of the argument, but it just got quiet downstairs. The two girls looked at each other.

"You can wait until her mother is found. We've at least narrowed down where she might be."

"Her mother," her aunt said then trailed off. "HER MOTHER! Your sister most likely isn't alive. She disappeared when the girl was 10! It's been 6 years and we _might_ know where she is! We'd have a better chance at finding a unicorn-" Nina got up and closed her cousin's door. They were quiet for a moment then they heard the door slam downstairs and a car start and drive off.

Nix sighed then looked up at her cousin.

"I don't think your mom likes me that much," she snickered. Nina laughed when her uncle knocked on her door and walked in. He smiled to try and hide how exhausted he looked.

"And how are my two girls doing?" he asked. Nina and Nix smiled at him and her cousin went and gave her father a hug. He knelt down to his daughter.

"Can you give me and your cousin a moment, please?" he asked. She looked over Nix and Nix nodded her head. Nina ran out of the room and her uncle walked over and sat on her bed. Nix sat her desk across the room. They sat in silence for a while she stared at him and watched him thumb through the photos on her end table. He picked up a picture of Nix and her mother the year she disappeared. He looked up at her and opened his mouth.

"I heard everything you guys said," she said turning her chair around so that she was facing her desk now. He sighed and took off his glasses.

"Listen, Nix, I don't know how long it's going to take to find her and I don't know how long you'll be able to stay here, but what I do know is that private schools are officially out of the question. Next week you'll be starting at Domino High. Please, try not to get kicked out within the first three months."

She turned her chair around to face him again. She had a stern look across her face.

"But after three months, I'm allowed to get kicked out right?" she joked. Her uncle and her both laughed. He got up and patted her on the head. He went to leave, but turned around.

"By the way, next week we'll be leaving for a business cruise," he said. She looked at him confused. He shrugged.

"Your aunt is going to want to take a cruise rather than-"

"Deal with me," she finished.

"Fight, I was going to say fight." She chuckled. "Anyway, I still have to work, so it's going to be a business cruise." This was the sixth cruise this month. It was like their way of drinking when in a crisis. She turned around.

"Have fun."


	2. Chapter 2: New School

Chapter 2

New School

"Nix!" Nina pounded on the bathroom door. "Hurry up! I still need to get ready and, besides, you still have to get ready for your new school!"

Steam filled the bathroom as Nix turned off the shower. She had been in there for about two hours already. She stepped out covered in a towel with her newly dyed hair. Nina took a strand of her light, purple-blue hair.

"New school, new hair?" she joked. Nix stuck her tongue out and Nina laughed. "The maid left your new uniform on your bed."

"We have maids and butlers, a 36,000 square foot home, we have 8 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, an 80 foot ballroom, a lake at the end of a 30 acre property, and yet you still choose to use this bathroom," Nix said. Nina laughed again and ran into the bathroom. Nix chuckled and shook her head and walked into her room.

A pastel pink jacket covered a white undershirt that had a blue bow tied around the collar. The skirt was just a regular blue skirt. She looked at the uniform with a great distaste.

_This school and I already have issues_, she thought as she put the uniform on.

Nix walked down to the kitchen where Nina was sitting at the table eating her breakfast. A maid rushed around the kitchen putting dishes in their correct places and made sure every little crumb was picked up before it got stuck to the floor or table. Nina looked up and spat her food across the table and fell over laughing at Nix's uniform. The busy maid almost had a heart attack when she turned around.

"Yeah, yeah," Nix said as she pulled an apple out of the pantry. "Laugh it up now, because soon, I hear, that your school is switching over to these same uniforms. In fact, I think it's the whole city." Nina stopped laughing and got serious.

"You're bluffing!" Nix smirked and shrugged then took a bite of her apple.

"You know what's not a joke?" the maid piped in, "that I'm going to beat your knuckles if you don't get out of this kitchen right now!" Nina jumped out of her chair and ran screaming into the entrance hall. Nix looked at the maid who held up a wooden spoon; she raised her hands like a criminal would when they're caught by the police and left.

Nix stared up at her new school. All around her kids ran and walked together to get inside before the first bell. She stood in front of the gates like an idiot staring up at her new school. A group of girls walked past her and whispered to themselves. She only caught new girl and then they started to chuckle. She clenched her fists around her school bag and drove her fingers into her palms. If she wanted, she could have laid the girls out right then and there, but she promised her uncle no trouble. She let out a deep breath then walked inside.

It was the same procedure; go to the office to get your schedule, be asked to be seated and wait for the principal to come out and talk to you for what's supposed to be a minute or two, but really ends up being 20 minutes after the late bell. Then, when the principal finally gets done with whatever it is he was doing, he greats you with a smiling face( pretending he doesn't know your record) hands you your schedule then offers to take you to your first class.

Nix sighed she and the principal were standing in front of her classroom door. He put his hand on her back and gave her a reassuring smile.

_Creep_! she thought as he opened the door.

"Excuse me, but it seems your class has a new student," he said and pushed her into the room. She wanted to break his hand. "I would like to introduce Miss Nix Offerman." Her last name really wasn't Offerman, but when kids heard it they usually gasped and thought she was her cousin, actually apart of her uncle's family. She opened her mouth to say something, but the principal kept talking about letting her feel at home and stuff like that. He patted her on the back and left the room. The teacher pointed out her seat and class resumed.

The rest of the day was a normal first day. She wondered around the school looking for her next class and occasionally talked to the children and asked where certain things were. At lunch, some kids played this card game called Duel Monsters. She knew about it from some of her old schools, but it wasn't as big as it was in her new school.

She toughed out the day and by the end of school she was still the new girl in the corner of the room sitting in the back with a book. Two guys walked up to her desk and one slammed his fist into it. She looked up from her book for a minute and recognized them then returned to reading.

"I'm going to make it simple for you babe," he said. "You're a rich bitch and I'm an awesome guy; be happy I'm associating myself with you. You seem like my kind of girl, so I'll allow you to call me boyfriend from now on." She turned a page in her book.

"I'd rather get knives get shoved down into my throat," she said. The man smirked and lowered his face so that his eyes were at the same level with hers.

"I can't put knives down your throat, but I can put something else down there." She looked up at him and he winked. She sighed.

"Nice pick up lines, dude. Was that the same line your inmate father told your whore of a mother when he met her on the street corner?" The guy's eyes filled with rage. He reached out and grabbed her by the collar and flung her out of her seat. The book slammed to the ground. The man began to spit on her face as he tried to get understandable words to come out his mouth. She just stared at him with a blank face unfazed by anything he said or threatened to do.

Nix watched as a girl in the corner of the room rushed out.

_Wimp, _she thought till the girl returned with three guys. Two were tall and looked about her age the other was probably up to her shoulder and had way crazier hair than she did.

The tall one with blonde hair shouted the guy holding her collar and the other tall one, a guy with brown hair, began to charge at him. Her captor turned around as the two guys grabbed each arm and forced him to let go. She dropped to the floor and the smaller boy ran over to help her.

The taller guys through him backwards and into some kid's desk. The bully looked up at the three boys and cursed.

"You'll regret helping this bitch," he snarled as one of friends came and helped him up.

"Oh! Go soak your head!" the blonde boy shouted. He had a Brooklyn accent which was weird for these parts. His buddy walked up beside him. The boy helped her off the floor. The brute cursed again and ran out of the room.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She dusted off her skirt and nodded her head. The other two boys walked up to her and so did the girl. She was a brunette about her height.

She picked up her book and put it in her bag as the bell rang for everyone to leave.

"Thanks for the help... umm..." she said.

"I'm Yugi Mutou and these are my friends," the boy with the crazy hair said and pointed to his friends.

"Joey Wheeler," the boy with the Brooklyn accent said.

"Tristan Taylor," his partner said.

"And I'm Tea Gardener," the girl ended. Nix blinked. It was like they had rehearsed this over and over again.

"Nix Offer... Saito," she said correcting herself halfway through the sentence.

"Saito?" Tea said. "But this morning the principal said-"

"Offerman is my uncle's name." Nix quickly said before she could get anything else out. She bowed her head and turned around. "Again, thanks for the help."

"Hey, Nix," the boy said. She turned back around and looked at him. "Would you like to come over and hang out with us. I mean, Matt would probably attack you on your way home anyway."

_Is this kid seriously worried about me?! _she thought. _What a weirdo._

"Yeah! That sounds awesome!" the girl and Joey said together. The boy smiled at her and gave her a puppy dog look. She sighed.

"Sure," Nix said shrugging and smiled at them. The group smiled and they nodded their head and the rest of them went to grab their things.

Yugi slowly put away his stuff into his bag as he appeared deep within his mind in front of the Pharaoh.

_Pharaoh, _Yugi thought, _what's the big idea in asking me to invite this girl over?_ The spirit inside the boy was quiet for a moment.

_There is just something about her... _he said out loud. Yugi looked at him curiously.

_What? _The Pharaoh smiled at the boy.

_Nothing, just think of it as I'm forcing you to th3 extend the arm of friendship to this girl. _

"Hey, Yuug!" Joey called from the back door of the4 classroom. "You comin' or what?" Yugi fumbled with the rest of his work into his bag and ran over to the blonde. Deep inside him, however, in the thoughts of the Pharaoh, a small battle raged in his head. There was something about her that made him feel uneasy, yet at home at the same time.

**Author**** to reader:**

**Pardon all the language from this chapter. I hope it hasn't turned you off from reading my story :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Not a Duelist

Chapter 3

Not A Duelist

"Grandpa," Yugi called as they all entered his home. It was a small shop that read Kame Game on the sign. An old man came out of the back of the room of the store and greeted Yugi and the rest of his friends. Nix stood awkwardly in the corner of the room. She looked into the glass case next to her and saw an assortment of bight colored dueling cards and other dueling stuff.

"And who do we have here?" Yugi's grandpa asked walking over to her. Yugi walked over and stood beside her.

"This is Nix Offerman," Yugi said forgetting her last name.

"Nice to meet you..." she said extending her hand out to him.

"Solomon Mutou," he said smiling at her. He nodded and looked at the glass case she was looking at. "I see you've taken an interest in my cards. Are you a good player? This one time-"

"Grandpa, she doesn't need a story about your past," Yugi said and led her away from his grandpa. The group went upstairs.

Joey and Yugi sat at a table while Tea and Tristan sat on a couch and turned on the tv. The two boys at the table pulled out a deck of cards each and began to play. Nix, again, stood awkwardly in the corner of the room.

Joey looked up at her and smiled then pulled out a chair.

"Come on and pop a squat next to us," he invited and she sat down. Yuig and the guy shuffled each other's decks and began to play.

Joey called out some monster's cards name and slammed it on to the table while Yugi stayed calm put down his cards. It a weird way, they were fighting each other.

_They're really into this game, _she thought as they ended one game and began another.

Yugi looked up at her. She was focusing really hard to try and look like she was into the game, but he saw through that. He handed her his deck.

"Wanna play?" he asked.

"Yeah, come on Nix," Joey chimed in. "I'll go easy on you." She looked at the cards in his hands as if they were bombs about to detonate.

"Sorry," she said, "but I don't play." The room went silent and it seemed the whole world was looking at her with a look of disappointment. Even the Pharaoh inside Yugi stopped breathing it seemed. Yugi slowly took his cards back and started a new game with Joey.

Just then, her phone began to ring. She rustled around through her bag and read the caller ID. It was her Nina.

"Gotta take this," she said running out of the house. She stood outside the store and answered her phone.

"Hello," she said. Nina was quiet for a moment then spoke.

"Hey, Nix," she said quietly. "You need to get home now. That cruise mom and dad took, yeah; it was just a mere ride out on a yacht. They haven't noticed that you're missing yet, but I think they're close to it." Nix held her breath as she heard her uncle in the background calling for her now. Yugi walked out of the store and looked at her.

"I'll be home in 15 minutes," she whispered into her cell phone then hung up.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, everything is alright," she chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. He laughed with her then stopped. Her phone began to buzz now as she got a text from her cousin warning her that her aunt and uncle were officially searching for her. Nina could hold them off for maybe 10 minutes.

"Listen, I have a friend who would be interested in teaching you how to play Duel Monsters, if you're interested," he said. Nix wasn't paying attention.

"Yeah, sounds cool," she said as replied back to her cousin. "See you tomorrow." She ran off and waved goodbye.

"Wait, Nix! You forgot the rest of your stuff!" Yugi called after her, but she was too far away to hear him.

_She's fast, _the Pharaoh said as he too watched her leave. _And she agreed for me to teach her how to play. Strange, I thought she would have declined. _

Yugi nodded his head and walked back into his house.

The walls surrounding her uncle's house were maybe 6 feet tall. Nix stared up at the wall and ran round to the back. A large oak tree stood over the gate on her side of the fence. She was a skilled climber and athletic all around.

Nix jumped up and grabbed a hold the lowest branch and pulled herself up. The twigs on the branches tugged on her skirt and scratched her arms and legs, but she kept going. She got to the top of the wall. It was just her luck that wall dropped down into the lake. She sighed and took off her shoes and socks and tossed them over to the shoe of the lake.

She held her breath then leaped down. The lake swallowed her up and the murky water made it had for her to see for a moment, but, soon, she was back above water and swimming to the shore. Nix ran up to the back door and listened to her aunt and unlce and maids and butlers run around the house searching for her. She sighed. Taking the backdoor was out of the question.

She out her shoes back on and stuffed her socks into her bra then ran over to a patch of vines that grew up the side of the mansion. She pulled herself up two stories and crawled over her balconies railing. She flopped to the ground and caught her breath.

Nix opened her balcony door and quickly undressed into a pair of sweats and T-shirt. She finally messaged Nina saying she was home. The little 10 year old burst through the door and called for her father saying she had found Nix.

Her uncle walked in.

"I swear, I searched your room," he said scratching his head. Nix shrugged.

"Well, I've been here this whole time," she lied. Her uncle studied her for a long while then shook his head some more and pulled brightly wrapped box with a blue ribbon tied around out from behind his back.

"I've got something for you," he said handing her a present. He smiled and stared at it. She looked up at him and smiled back.

"Thanks," she said and put the present on her bed. He nodded his head and left her alone. Nina looked at the present and shook it then looked at her cousin. She began to laugh.

"Did your boobs grow or something?" Nina laughed. Nix remembered she had her socks still stuffed away in her bra.

Just then, Nix's aunt barged into her room. She looked as if she had finished more than one wine bottle that day. She scowled at her niece.

"Nice hair," she said sarcastically and pulled her child from Nix's room. Nix blinked then called back "Nice to see you too."

She sighed and laid down on her bed. The present bounced around and smacked her in the head. She opened it and pulled out a small bottle with a novelty sword in it. The bottle was tied around a piece of string.

She stared at the necklace then put it on and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Yami

Chapter 4

Yami

The morning air was crisp as Nix stood at the edge of the pier over looking her lake. The sun slowly rose on the eastern horizon and the sky turned into a tropical drink that someone splashed on a blue canvas. Something about today irritated her and she couldn't sleep.

She sat down and leaned up against a log that held the pier up. Something was supposed to happen, but she didn't know what. She felt as if it had something to do with both her school life and her home life. She sighed and tried to shrug the nagging feeling off.

She moved herself so that she was now lying on the deck and slowly closed her eyes and listened to the early birds chirp.

Before she knew it, she was waking up to the sound of a maid screaming at her cousin that she had 20 minutes to finish her breakfast before she was taken to school. Nix jumped up and ran across the yard into the house. Her cousin and the kitchen maid stared at her as she ran in in her pajamas and up to her room to change. There was no time for a shower, so she just through her hair up in a ponytail and put on the extra uniform the school gave out.

Nina walked into her room just as Nix realized that her school bag was missing.

"Did you leave it at the school?" her cousin asked as piles of clothes were thrown across the room. Nix shook her head and remembered where it was. She grumbled. Downstairs the maid began to yell for them to leave.

The two girls rushed down the staircase and grabbed their lunch from the maid.

"Don't forget you two," she warned, "the master of the house has an important dinner meeting at 6pm sharp. So be here and ready by then."

Nix grumbled some more.

Nix sighed as sat down in the back of the room. Around her kids whispered to themselves and giggled and studied or finished homework from the other night. Nix, just sat there awkwardly and alone dreading her evening plans.

The people her uncle worked with didn't really suit her fancy and they weren't always the most gentlemen of like people. She out her head on her desk and stared at the clock. She closed her eyes and began to drift back off to sleep.

Suddenly, someone tapped her on the shoulder and she almost jumped out of her skin. She turned her head around and saw Yugi standing there with her school bag. He handed it to her and smiled.

"You left this at my house last night when you rushed off so suddenly," he said smiling at her. She took it from him and thanked him. He went and sat on one of the desks next to her.

"Was everything alright?" he asked. She nodded her head, but said nothing. The two sat in a strange silence for a moment or two when Yugi spoke again.

"Remember that friend I told you about yesterday before you ran off?" She looked up at him confused. "The one who said he'd teach you how to play Duel Monsters if you wanted."

_That's the other feeling I had last night,_ she thought as it clicked. When she was on her phone, especially with her cousin, she tended to tune people out.

"Well, my friend was wondering if you would like to meet him at lunch."

"Oh! Uhh...sure!" Nix stampered out. Yugi smiled.

"Great! Meet him on the roof." The bell rang and he left.

Nix slowly walked up the up the staircase to the roof. She was officially 5 minutes late and adding up more time, but she didn't really care. She didn't even want to go and learn this child's game.

Kids rushed past her and slowed down to look at the lonely girl heading up to the roof at lunch. She ignored them all and went on her way.

She opened the door and poked her head out and looked around. No one; she walked out of the doorway and over to a bench that was sat up against the end of the railing behind the door.

She had sat there for about another 5 minutes when she heard someone open the door.

"Excuse me," he said. His voice was very deep and manly, which was sort of surprising to her if he knew Yugi. She looked up at the guy walking towards her. "You must be Nix." She blinked.

Was this a joke? The guy who was standing in front of her looked exactly like the little boy who had helped her up the other day. The only difference was this guy was taller and, again, a deeper voice, and his hair was a little different.

Nix stared at him for a minute then began to laugh.

"You're kidding me, right?" she asked. The guy in front of her looked at her confused. She stood up. "Right, I don't know what kind of joke this is Yugi, but I'm really not amused." She shook her head and started to walk away, when he grabbed her coat sleeve and tugged her back.

"I'm not Yugi," he said. "I'm Yami; him and I we might look like the same person, but we're not." He smiled. "Trust me, this isn't a joke."

She looked down at him, not sure if she really wanted to trust him or not, but something inside her urged her to stay with the taller Yugi. She sighed and sat back down. He sat down next to her.

The two sat in an uncouth silence as Nix fumbled over her food and the guy next to her studied her. She finished her lunch.

"Well, if that was the only thing you had to say, then I guess I'll be on my way," she said not turning her head towards him and standing up. She was really embarrassed for some reason and didn't understand why.

She began to walk away again, when the guy stood back up and reached out for her.

"No, wait, don't go just yet," he said pulling her back. She fell backwards into him and her necklace slipped off her neck. It shattered on the ground and all the sand inside of it blew away with a breeze. The novelty sword made a small tingling sound that seemed to scream in her and his ears.

Nix sat there for a moment in utter shock. Yugi seemed like a seemed like a strange kid to her, but she wouldn't have expected him to introduce her to someone who had apparently needed her by his side 24/7. She shot up out of Yami's lap and dusted off her skirt and jacket.

"I don't want to learn that childish game," she said not looking at him. She knew if she turned her head, she would end up screaming at him and getting sent home for the day for harassing a student. "Even if I did want to learn how to play, I do not want it to be taught to me by someone like you. Good bye, Yami."

Nix stomped off to the door. But, he still reached out for her.

"Nix, wait," he said grabbing her sleeve again. "I'm s-"

She turned around and slapped him across the face. Nix didn't realize it till she had done nor did she mean to hit him. Yami stumbled backwards and touched the raw patch of skin on his face.

"Don't touch me!" she snapped at him. "Don't come near me ever again! And tell Yugi and his friends thanks for being there, but to stay away from now on."

She took a deep breath and left.

Yami stood there shocked as he watched Nix storm off. He was sure he had ruined a friendship with her. He walked over and picked up the little sword that fell out of the necklace and put it his pocket.

Yami turned back into Yugi after that and the small boy cried out in pain as his brain reacted to it.

"Yami," he said. "What gives?" The Pharaoh said nothing. He didn't mean to offend her, in fact he was going to tell her he was sorry and he'd get her a new one.

_I have to go talk to her tonight and apologize for my actions, _he told Yugi. _May I borrow your body again?_

Yugi felt uneasy. He could still feel the pain in his cheek and thought he might feel it for hours later.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I don't want to get hit again." The Pharaoh chuckled.

_Trust me. Now, do you know where the Offerman's live?_


	5. Chapter 5: Two Kings

Chapter 5

Two Kings

Nix sat at the top of the staircase looking down at the men who entered her home. They were old business CEO types of people just hungry to get her uncle invested into some dumb contract that would turn sour within a month.

"Whatcha doin, Nix?" Nina asked behind her. Nix looked up at the small girl dressed in her best attire. It was customary for the whole family to greet the guests in her household. Except for Nix; she had tried that once and her aunt almost had a heart attack.

"Well, your mom doesn't seem to want me down there to greet everyone, or just down there in general, so I'm just going to sit up here and stare at the people coming in awkwardly." Nina giggled and sat down next to her cousin.

"Bad day?" she asked. For a 10 year old, Nina was pretty smart about stuff that happened and knew how to deal with it.

"Let me tell you, those guys I was hanging out with the other introduced me to one of their friend's - Yami, Yugi... I don't know his name; they both look the same - anyway, guy is apparently really good at this game called Duel Monsters-"

"Your new friends play Duel Monsters?" Nina squealed. "I love that game! In fact, I've got a pretty rad deck myself. You also got to meet Yugi? He's like the King if Duel Monsters!" Nix looked at her cousin and chuckled. Even though Nina was smart with certain stuff, she was still 10 and childish.

"Long story short, the friend of their's was a total creeper and kept grabbing me to stay with him, I fell and shattered my new necklace, and then smacked him across the face."

"Ouch, sorry cous'," Nina said.

"Nina!" Nix's aunt said rushing up the stairs. "What are you still doing up here? We need you down there and being a part of the _family._" She gave Nix a nasty look when she said family. Nina hopped up and ran down the stairs. Her aunt now turned her attention to the adopted one.

"I want you to leave this house for tonight," she said. Nix heard her add on "or forever". The blue haired girl got up and her aunt handed her some money.

"Honey," her uncle called up the stairs, "Mister Seto Kiaba is here." Her aunt fixed her hair and with walked down the stairs with grace and speed all at once. Nix scoffed.

"Didn't want to join the _family _anyways," she said and slammed her door. She pulled on a jacket and switched into a pair of jeans and actual shoes. She climbed down her balcony and was off for downtown Domino City.

Downtown Domino City was the place to be when night fell. The lights of the city out showed any cluster of stars space had to offer. The vibrant, urban life of the youth stepped out at these hours and caused a sweet sort of chaos.

Nix walked around the downtown and listened to the people mingling with one and other. They created new friendships, started a relationship, or just reunited with past friends they've known forever.

Nix smiled. This sure as hell beat staying at her uncle's party with a bunch of anal old men talking about God knows what with each other. The sweet aroma of food filled her nose and her stomach began to growled. She ordered food at a little stand and went on her way to enjoy her night.

She turned a corner down one of the less crowded streets. As she made her way down the street and stared off at the less known places of Domino City, she walked past an alleyway and was ran into. Her food flung out of her hand and landed on the person's head who knocked her over. She grumbled and rubbed her back.

"Are you okay?" Nix asked. The person who had run into her was a small boy child. He looked scared out of his mind.

"Hey!" an older guy shouted from the alley way. "There he is." Nix grabbed his wrist and helped him.

"What's going on, bro?" she said pretending to be the boy's older sister. He looked at her confused and she winked at him. Three guys stepped out of the alley. They looked her over.

"Never knew you had a such a hot sister," one of them said, "or any sister for that matter." Nix rubbed the boys head. It was greasy like he hadn't showered in days and the fact her food had landed on his head made it worse.

"He doesn't like to talk about me much." She smiled down at him and everything went quiet for a moment.

"Well," she said grabbing his hand, "we need to go now. Dinner is call and so is mom and dad." She didn't get more than three steps away when one of the guys chasing the kid grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, wait a second," he said. "Mokuba doesn't have any parents!" Her and boy, Mokuba, gave each other worried glances.

"Didn't want to have to do this, but-" she said. Nix flung around and kicked the boy who had her shoulder in the nuts. Her friends came at her, but she was quicker and dodged; they collided with each other. She grabbed the boy's hand again and ran. She turned back into the crowded part of the downtown and ran up the sidewalk pushing people to the ground and out of her way. But, her and boy's road came to an end when the road split. She let him go.

"Listen, Mokuba," she said leaning down and grabbing his shoulders. "I know you don't know me or anything, and I'm pretty sure you think I'm a creep, but I need you to trust me. Take one route and I'll lead them down the other." He nodded his head

"Thank you, Miss...?"

"Nix."

"Thank you, Miss Nix. I'll be sure to repay you." She smiled at the boy and soon he was gone. She stood up and looked around. She saw her chaser then put her hands on hee knees and acted like she was out of breath.

"There she is!" the guy she kicked in the crotch shouted. She looked up and ran the other way.

"She slapped Yami in the face?!" Tea shouted in disbelief. Yugi nodded and touched the Millennium Puzzle.

_And you still want to go and see her, _he thought to Yami. The Pharaoh nodded.

_Yes, too bad we couldn't find her home. She is rich after all; doesn't that mean she would have been easier to find? _

"That girl treated you like that?" Joey and Tristan both shouted at the same time.

"We welcomed her to be friends with us and helped her ass when she was getting attack the other day!" Joey said.

"I'll have a very long talk with that girl the next time I see her." Tea said raising her fist in front of her face as if she was making a pact of some kind. Tristan and Joey chimed in again agreeing.

"No, guys, that's not-" Yugi began to say when he pushed to the ground from behind.

Nix rubbed her head.

"Hey, sorry, man," she said. "I didn't mean too-" Yugi looked up at the girl who has almost bruised his face this afternoon. Within a nanosecond she was off him and dusting herself off.

"Why do I always run into the worst of people?" she grumbled. Tea went and helped Yugi up while Nix looked around not paying attention to the people in front of her.

"Hey, you, what's the big idea with slappin' my friend earlier today and then runnin' into Yuug and not apologizin'?" Joey said and placed a hand on her shoulder. Nix jumped a little, grabbed his hand and threw him over her shoulder. Joey collided with Yugi and he was back on the ground.

"Oops..." Nix said as people in the crowd surrounding them began to look.

"There she is!" one of the guys who were chasing her shouted across the street and started to charge at her. She sighed and took off pushing the other two out of her way. The three men passed the group of friends as Yugi changed into Yami.

"That girl is in trouble," he said pushing Joey off him and standing up. "I'm going to go and help!" Before anyone could stop him, he was off.

Nix turned down an alley to get the thugs behind her away from the public. Behind her she could hear trash cans being knocked over and flung. There was also a heavy amount of breathing behind her saying that she had warned them down. Directly in front of her was a chain - linked fence that she was sure the brutes couldn't get over.

Nix hopped up and grabbed hold of the fence and began to pull herself up. She was maybe, half way uo when a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and yanked her down. She smashed into the broke cement ground and felt the little rock shards pierce her face.

"You were hard to get to," the guy holding her face into the ground spat through his teeth. She heard the other two walk up gasping for breath.

"Tell us... where the boy... is and we'll let you go with... a couple of scrapes and bruises..." that sentence took whatever wind he had out of him and she was sure he was going to pass out. The guy she had kicked in the nuts leaned down to her and had the guy get his hands off her face. He smiled.

"Wha'd ya say?" She spat at him.

"I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to!" she snapped. Nix smirked. "Mokuba is probably already on his way here to find me with a squad of police officers. Well, at least he would be there getting them." The man frowned and told his buddy to pick her up and the one who was about to pass out to watch for anyone coming their way. They did as they were told.

The leader, who she was guessing was the guy she kicked, cracked his knuckles then let one right into her stomach. Nix had all the wind punched out of her lungs. Her head flopped down and she gasped for breath. The man chuckled.

"Are you sure you don't know?" he asked. Nix looked up undeterred. She spat at him again.

"Bite me!" she shouted and her hit her again in the stomach. He raised his fist to do it again, but was stopped by someone shouting.

The leader turned around and she looked over his shoulder. The group's watch was standing the wrong direction and seemed terrified.

He stuttered out the word _boss _before he blacked out and fell over. Behind him was a man, maybe, half the size of him standing in the streets light with his hand in his pocket.

"Pardon me," he said, "but if you don't let her go now, you'll be in deep shit." Nix grumbled as she recognized the voice of the Yami fellow who she slapped earlier. The boss started to laugh.

"Lookey here, Butch!" he said to the guy holding her. "We have ourselves another hero. Listen, bub, that girl over there was trying to be a hero and now look at her."

Nix didn't understand what happened next, except that the guy went down and Yami didn't move. The guy holding her loosened his grip just enough for her to slip through his grasp and nail him in the chin with her fist. The stumbled backwards and looked up to see both of them coming at him.

"Stay back!" he screamed and ran away into the fence. He bounced off the fence and smacked his head into the ground. Nix sighed and shook her head then looked at Yami.

"Thanks," she said turning away. The Pharaoh looked at her as she walked away. "But, this changes nothing."

Suddenly, Nix felt light headed. She scuttled her feet around to try and catch her, but in the end it was Yami who caught her. She looked up at him. Her vision was off centered and the world was spinning.

"This doesn't count either," she said then gave him her address. "Just help me get there."

By the time they arrived at her home, the party was still going on. Nix had her arm around his neck and Yami had his hand around her waist.

"We can't go through the front," she said then pointed out the large oak tree next to the wall. She let go of him and fumbled her way to the trunk of the tree. By some force of luck, she had made it up the tree and so had he. She took off her shoes and socks then through them across to the shore like she had done the other day.

"I suggest you do the same," she said then slid off the wall into the water. Yami watched as her whole body was completely consumed by the water. He paniced and thought she had blacked out again.

Without thinking, he jumped in after her. She saw the bubbles form next to her as he and her met underwater. Yami looked confused to see her alright while Nix just gave him a blank look. She swam up then went to shore and he followed. She pulled him over to the vines that led to her room and climbed up.

She opened the balcony door and flopped onto her bed. Yami stood in the doorway not sure if he should come inside or not. She looked at him and waved her hand.

"Come in," she said grimly. "You're letting the bugs in." Yami closed the door behind him and sat down at her desk. They sat in an even worse awkward silence than they did this morning. She sighed and rolled over.

Just then, a knock came at her door. Nix shot off her bed and pushed Yami into her closet.

"Make a sound and I'll kill you," she hissed through her teeth. He opened his mouth to say something, but she closed the door before the words could escape.

She opened the door and Nina stood in the doorway. Yami looked through the small crack in her closet door.

"Why are you all wet, Nix?" she asked. She remembered that she hadn't changed out of her lake smelling clothes yet. Nina shook her head.

"Dad wants you; dress nice." She giggled and ran off. She had been gone for hours, was he really just now realizing she wasn't at the party? Nix sighed and closed her door. Yami opened the closet door.

"Your sister seems like a nice girl," he said and sat on her bed.

"She's not my sister," Nix replied. "My uncle adopted me into his family when my mother disappeared in some country a long time ago."

She walked into her closet and tossed out a pair of black heels. She then closed the door and came out in a slimming, red strapless dressed. She fumbled with her hair and srarted to make a side braid that eventually turned into a braid knot on the side of her head. She walked over to her dresser pulled out a pair of gloves that reached up a little above her elbows. She then pulled out an assortment of bracelets and then a multi-colored diamond studded choker. She sat down and put on the heels then sprayed herself with what seemed like a gallon of perfume. Yami hacked and coughed.

Nix looked at him.

"You can open a window," she said then examined herself in the mirror. She shrugged.

"I tried," she said and left. She took a deep breath and graciously walked down the staircase. Her uncle looked up and smiled. He walked over to her and grabbed her hand.

"Ah, Mister Seto Kaiba," he said. "Let me introduce my niece that I took in after her mother left: this is Nix." She bowed and looked at the guy. He had no sense of humor at all, she could tell. He was tall with brown hair and had this look in his eyes as if he was studying her so he could find her weakness and destroy her.

"Pleased to meet you," she said smiling. Nina ran past her with a young boy behind her. Her uncle grabbed her cousin in his arms and lifted her up and she squealed. Nix looked down at the young boy and flinched. It was the kid she had saved earlier! Mokuba looked up at her and smiled then winked. Her uncle went on and talked to the tall guy and she slowly tuned him out.

"... What about you, Nix?" he said. She looked her uncle.

"Huh?" she asked. He laughed and patted her on the head.

"Do you play that Duel Monsters game?" he repeated. "Mister Kaiba here is apparently the King of the game." Nina giggled and ran off with Mokuba following behind her.

"I never learned," she said.

"Maybe Mister Kaiba here could teach you how to play, then you'd become the queen of Duel Monsters," her uncle said chuckling.

"For her to become queen of Duel Monsters, she would have to spend hours upon hours training and dueling with me and to get to the level I am on today. Besides, I wouldn't give her my secrets anyway," Kaiba said and their conversation got very quiet. She wasn't sure how to respond to something like that except to ask him if he was for real. To her, it was just a dumb child's game. Her uncle laughed and began to talk again.

She felt weird and dizzy. "Uncle, if you don't mind, please excuse me. I must go. It was nice to meet you Seto Kaiba." She bowed and took her leave. She rushed passed her cousin and up the stairs. She slammed her door closed and fell on to her bed.

"What is up with everyone and this game?" she asked Yami. He didn't reply. She looked up, but no one was there. She blinked and walked to the window.

_He must have left, _she thought and sighed. _Good! _Nix closed her windows and peaked out of hee nice clothes then went to sleep.

Down the hall the clock struck 12 and it echoed through the now sleeping house. Everyone had left hours ago and the maids had cleaned everything soon after. Nix opened her eyes and sat up. Something felt strange. She looked around her room and saw a silhouette of someone standing in the corner of her room next to her bed.

They were examining something of her's and hadn't realized that she was awake till she moved a little.

They looked up and dropped whatever they were holding. She heard glass break and watch them lean down to her desk and set something on it. Then they opened her window and jumped out. She leaped out of bed and ran to the window and watched them run off. She sighed and turned on her desk light. On the floor was her picture of her mother and her standing in front of some pyramids in Egypt. This had been taken the week she disappeared. She walked over to her desk and laying on it was the small sword that had been inside the bottle.


	6. Chapter 6: Yugi and Yami

Chapter 6

Yugi and Yami

These early mornings were getting ridiculous.

Nix and Nina stood outside of the mansion with the maids ans butlers waving her aunt and uncle good bye. The two were talking a Mediterranean Cruise setting out this morning. Nina held Nix's hand and yawned as she tried to stay awake.

Her aunt swung the doors open and paraded herself down the steps as, in the spirit of everything, the workers threw confetti at her and wished her good luck on her journey. The excitedment died down a little as her uncle came outside.

Nina's mom knelt down and gave her child a kiss.

"Oh!" she squealed. "Mommy will miss you very much. I'll be sure to bring you back something extra special!" Nina yawned again and rubbed hee eyes; she was unfazed by the thought of a new gift. Her mother twitched and Nix laughed. Her aunt stood up and walked away from her child and didn't say a word to Nix.

Her unlce now knelt down and pulled them both into a hug and kissed them both on the cheeks.

"Be good to the workers, you two," he warned and smiled.

"We always are, uncle," Nix said. _Because they're gone by noon after you leave, _she finished saying in her head. He chuckled and patted her on the head. The car honked and his wife hollered at him. The car sped away soon after. The maids and butlers all relaxed and began their final day before they began their blong vacation.

"Nix," Nina said tugging on her sleeve, "will you take me to my room." Nix smiled and nodded her head. She knelt down in front of her cousin and she climbed on her back. Nix gave her a piggy back ride up to her room. She dropped her off and she crawled back into bed.

"Can I not go to school today? I'm really tired." Nix laughed and nodded her head and closed the door.

The sun blazed down at lunch as Nix sat on top of the roof and read her book. She sat behind the door where she had met Yami the first time in case someone came up she wouldn't be seen. She heard the door open and slam shut; there was no sound of kids. She shrugged it off and returned to her book.

"Well, well, well," someone said behind her. She looked up saw Joey and Tristan walking up to her. "Nix Offerman-"

"Saito," she corrected. Joey blinked and shook his head. She returned to her book.

"Nix _Saito," _he continued, "we heard that you slapped Yugi the other day and then bad mouthed us."

"Wrong, I slapped Yami. And I didn't bad mouth you guys I simply said to have him tell you to stay away. Either the message didn't get delivered or you're really bad at taking a hint." She stood up and began to walk away when Yugi turned the corner. She blinked; she knew this kid wouldn't hurt her.

"Hey!" Tristan shouted and pulled her arm back. "We're not done with you!" She turned around and slapped him across the face. Yugi flinched and Joey clenched his fists and began to shout at her. The boy stepped between Joey and her and tried to push them away from each other.

"What's going on up here?!" the principal yelled turning the corner and seeing his students in a very heated argument. He looked over at Tristan who was holding his face and then at the other three. His face tightened up and he turned red. "All of you in my office, NOW!"

"Nix, now I know this is your first offense, but you have a very lengthy record of school violence," he said. Nix looked down at his desk and prayed her uncle wouldn't hear about this. "We can't reach anyone at your house at the moment, but we'll get this act of violence reported to them as soon as possible. However, till then, you'll be serving detention for the next couple of days." She sighed and nodded her head then left.

The sun was at its early stage of setting by the time her first day of detention was almost served up. She sighed and the teacher in the front of the room let out a huge hush. She sat in the back of the room next to the window with Yugi a couple of chairs in front of her. On the other side of the room were Joey and Tristan who were in the exact same place as they were. They were the only ones in the room.

Nix turned her head to the window and stared out at the empty school yard. Everyone had left including all the kids who had sports practice after school. However, there was this one car parked in front of the building. Two men stood outside it and stood guard it seemed like. One of them looked up and spotted her staring at them.

He smirked and walked over the back seat's door and opened it. He reached in and yanked someone out. Nix squinted her eyes trying to see who it was. Then it hit her.

_"We _can't _reach anyone at your house..." _she remembered the principal saying.

The man next to the car waved Nina around like she was a trophy or something. Nix shot out of her chair.

"Nix!" the detention teacher said. "Sit down; your time isn't up yet." Nix didn't say anything she just ran out of the class room. The teacher began to yell for her, and then ran out herself to get the principal.

Yugi looked outside and watched Nix run out the front doors towards two men standing in front of a car holding something. He squinted his eyes to see what they were holding.

_"That's her cousin! _Yami shouted inside him. "_Yugi, we must hurry down there and help!" _Yugi watched as the guy holding her cousin tossed her back into the car and the other guy punch Nix and sent her to her back.

Yugi jumped out of his seat and went to aid her as Joey and Tristan yelled for him to get back. He pushed the doors open just as she was hit again. The men were laughing until they saw him.

"Let's go," one said then got back into the car.

"If you want to see your cousin again, go to warehouse 17, that is where you'll find her." The car sped off and Nix stumbled to her knees. Yugi ran over and helped her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She pushed him away.

"Get away from me!" she growled. "I need to save Nina!"

"Let me go with you," Yugi said. She looked at him right as he began to change into Yami. She blinked and he smiled.

"You saw me _fight _the other night, let me help you again." She was in a mild state of shock from watching Yugi transform into the other guy. But, she didn't care much. She nodded her head and they were left.

The moon glistened over the dark water of the Domino City's sea area and made the warehouses just that much creepier. Yami and Nix walked side-by-side to each other and counted each warehouse. They stopped at the every end of one row and looked at it.

"Warehouse 17," she said and placed her hand on the door. Yami put his next to hers and they both pushed the door open at the same time.

A man sat on a golden throne with torches next him and Nina too. Nix grunted.

"Give me back my cousin!" she yelled and charges in. Yami reached out for her, but she was too fast, but not fast enough. Two men leaped out from behind the door and grabbed her. She struggled and tried to get free, but it was useless. The man on the throne smirked.

"Enter Pharaoh," he said. "Don't worry they won't come after you." Yami walked in cautiously as the rest of the warehouse lit up. A huge dueling area lit up and the man got off his throne.

"Welcome Pharaoh to the duel that determines these two girl's lives," he cheered. "I am called Felix."

_Pharaoh, _Nix thought and stopped struggling. The man got on his side of the dueling ring and activated it.

"Wait!" Nix shouted. "You kidnapped _my _cousin and then captured me just to duel with him?! Why didn't you just go and do something to someone he cares about and leave me alone!"

"The boss wanted you out of the picture for some reason," he said. "Think of it as killing two birds with one stone." Nix's head started to hurt and her mind began to spin. She looked up at Yami who was at his players position.

"Let's duel!" he shouted and the game began. Nix watched in amazement as giant monsters appeared of the dueling field and fought each other. Then it hit her, either this guy just dueled anyone or was seriously playing to save her and her cousin.

_What is this guy's deal? _she thought as the last of Yami's opponents hp points dropped to zero and the man screamed and collapsed. The guys that were holding her let go and collapsed on the floor too.

Nix ran over to Nina and untied her. The little girl had been sobbing for hours. Nix threw back the rope and Nina wrapped her arms around her cousin and pulled her into a hug. For awhile she cried on her shoulder, but then stopped as Yami walked over. She blinked and smiled.

"Can I have you sign my Dark Magician card?" Nina asked. They let out a light laugh, then Nix stood up.

"Now, Felix, I'm going to show you how and why I was kicked out of three schools," Nix said as she cracked her knuckles and walked up to where he had collapsed. She froze at the top of the stairs.

"He's gone..."

Nix sat on the edge of Nina's bed and tucked the blankets in around her.

"Thanks for saving me," Nina said, "sis'" Nix looked down at the little girl and smiled.

"Don't let your mother hear you say that," she chuckled, "the woman might have a coronary." The two girls laughed and Nix patted Nina on the head.

"Good night, sister." She turned out the light and closed the door and walked over to the second story balcony where Yami was looking over the lake.

"I think you have some explaining to do," she said. He turned around.

"About what?" he said.

"The fact that you're like a two-in-one combo; who are you really? Are you Yugi or Yami or this Pharaoh person Felix was talking about back there; what the hell is going on?" Yami sighed.

"I am everyone you mentioned. A long time ago I was the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt who was trapped inside this necklace for more thab 3000 years, until Yugi solved the puzzle and released me. I am now a spirit that dwells within him and helps him protect his friends and other people through dueling and other stuff."

Nix's mind was spinning again. The whole thing was complicated and she couldn't wrap her mind around it even if she tried. She sighed and shook her head.

"Whatever," she chuckled. The two stood in silence for a moment when they heard the clock strike 10.

"I'm sorry for breaking your necklace the other day," he said finally. She looked at him and smiled.

"Don't worry, it wasn't anything special. And I'm sorry for slapping your... which cheek?" He pointed to the one closest to her. She leaned over and kissed it.

"Thank you for saving Nina and I today," she said as he blushed and touched where her lips had touched. "You can let yourself out like yesterday. Bye." She turned and left hin standing on the balcony dazed.

"Master! Please forgive me!" Felix groveled on his knees as a circle of cloaked people stood around him deciding his fate for failure.

"You risked your mission on killing the Saito girl on a dueling game instead of just killing her? We wouldn't be having this talk if you had won."

"For shame," the circle chanted.

"Please, please, give me another chance!" The circle went quiet and he heard a click. "Master no! Wait..."

Nina and Nix sat in the kitchen listening to the morning news.

"A man was found dead this morning from an unknown source," the reporter said. "The man was Felix Tarintoff..." Nix muted the tv and Nina looked at her.

"You don't think it was..." Nina asked. Nix shrugged.

"Maybe."


	7. Chapter 7: Bad Luck

_**Before we begin...**_

_**Hey guys, so I know it's been a while sense I've updated and I'm really sorry (my wireless was down and junk). I plan on updating as much as I can before I have to leave for San Francisco this Saturday. After next Sunday, however, I will be free to update as much as I want. Thanks for being patient with me and I hope you continue to read. **_

_**~The Author~**_

Chapter 7

Bad Luck

Yugi rolled over in his bed and smacked the alarm then rolled over so that he was staring at the ceiling. It was Saturday and he was exhausted. For the rest of the week the Pharaoh had been making him run all over town "hunting" Nix. He placed his elbow on his forehead and sighed.

"Yugi!" his grandfather called from downstairs. "Get ready then come down stairs. I need your help." The boy flipped his legs over the side of the bed and walked to the bathroom. He stared into the mirror and touched the cheek she had kissed. It was strange. The kiss was meant for the Pharaoh, but it still seemed like he received it. He blushed.

"_Is something the matter, Yugi?" _Yami asked. Yugi shook his head.

"Just thinking, that's all," he replied.

Nix held up her one of her cousin's dueling cards and stared at the laminated piece of cardboard.

"Ooh! That's one of my favorites," Nina said looking over her Nix's shoulder. "Please be careful." Nix shook her head and sent the card down on the table next to two thick stacks of cards her sister had been collecting for a while. She just couldn't wrap her mind around on how people could actually consider playing a child's game something equivalent to an actual fight. But, people, kids and adults, still did it and, apparently, it hurt worse than a fist to the face.

She picked up another card and Nina dropped another stack of cards in front of her.

"Help me organize this," she said as Nix put down the card. "I want to see if Mokuba plays like his brother."

"Mokuba seems to cool be as big of a stuck up ass as his brother," Nix said. Nina laughed.

The doorbell rang and Nina flopped around on the table, like a fish, trying to pick up all of her cards. Nix laughed at her cousin and got up to answer the door. She opened it and little Mokuba stood alone in the doorway.

"Come on in," she said smiling at him. Nina rushed behind her up the stairs.

"That's no way to treat your guest!" Nix shouted at her. She turned around and stuck her tongue out at her then ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. Nix walked over to the stairs and picked up an assortment of cards that her cousin had dropped and put them on the coffee table.

"Have a seat," she said to Mokuba, "she'll be down shortly. Want anything to eat or drink?" He shook his head; she shrugged and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge.

Nix sat down on the couch across from him and sat in silence waiting for Nina to return. She lifted up a card from Nina's scattered deck. The pictures were about all that she liked on the liked on the cards.

"Oh, do you play?" Mokuba asked her smiling.

"Nope, never got into it," she replied. Nix felt like she was in a never ending loop with that question. She giggled. "Nina just got into this game a little while ago, and I can't even tell you what anything on the card means. I just like the pictures."

Mokuba laughed and went and sat down next to her.

"Let me show you," he said taking the card. She didn't have any time to reply before he started to the basic knowledge of attack and defense points to her. Nix half heard what he was saying.

"Whoa!" Nina exclaimed. The two looked up and stared at the girl standing at the bottom of the staircase with her mouth gaping open. "You got Nix to sit down long to hear you talk about Duel Monsters?"

"If you stand there to long with your mouth opened that wide, you'll start to swallow flies," Nix said and Nina blushed. Her cousin flopped herself down on the couch across from them. She smirked at Mokuba.

"Duel me!" Nina slammed her deck on th3 coffee table and the loud thud echoed through the almost empty mansion. Mokuba frantically began to explain to Nix's cousin that he wasn't his brother and wasn't that much of a duelist himself.

Nix smiled and rolled her eyes. She stood up and left the two kids to bicker over the card game. She went upstairs and changed out of her lazy clothes and into something more on the town like.

"Where are you going?" Nina asked as Nix walked over to the front door. She smiled.

"I'm going out tonight. Some friends want to hang out." She pulled the door open and left.

Nix pulled her purple-blue hair up into a bun that was messy yet good enough to be pulled off at the "club" she was going to. It wasn't so much a club rather than a student hang out place where they played loud techno music and most people pretended to know how to dance. Nix wore a short, black skirt with a dark Chinese festival shirt on top that was traced with red, and almost knee-high boots, and black above the elbow gloves that were cut off at the fingers and had a whole on the back of the palm.

She looked into the glass window she used to do her hair and checked herself out. She flattened out her skirt and pulled her sleeves up and fixed just about every little problem she saw. Someone chuckled behind her.

"Yo, relax Nix," the person said, "it's just us." She spun around two girls and a guy walked up behind her. She smiled a huge smile and ran up and wrapped her arms around the outside people and pulled all of them into a huge hug. The boy was Alec and the girls were Hailey and Riley. Riley had short hair that was a blazing red at the top and turned a light orange towards the tips while Hailey had a long, deep chestnut color hair that was only highlighted with a lighter brown. Alec had a dark blue hair color.

They gang all laughed and began to walk to the club. Alec led the way; it was his idea to get together. Nix had met these three at the first school, back when she still lived with her mother. The four practically grew up together as children until she left to be with her uncle. However, they still kept in touch.

Hailey and Riley blabbed in both of Nix's ears and she tried to keep up with what the other was saying.

"So where exactly are we going?" she asked Alec. No one had really told her anything, but that was normal for their group. He turned around and smirked.

"You'll see," he said. He stopped and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her up with him. Hailey and Riley joined them on both sides. Nix blushed and she smiled up at him.

_Friends are allowed to like other friends, right? _she asked herself. Alex pointed his finger and showed them where they were all heading.

The speakers blared and girls and guys moved their bodies to the beat of the song. Tea was out on the dance floor with everyone else, except she was better than they were. Joey, Tristan, and Yugi sat in a booth and talked.

"Then she kissed you?!" Joey shouted. Yugi shook his head.

"No, she kissed the Pharaoh," he said. "Besides, it was on the cheek." Tristan and Joey shook their heads.

"And the Pharaoh resides in whose body?" Tristan asked and smirked. Yugi blushed. When they put it that way, it complicated things. "Besides, a kiss is a kiss." Joey laughed.

"This coming from the guy who has never had one," Joey laughed.

"What did you say, punk?! I could get any girl in here if I wanted to."

"Oh yeah, I dares you!"

"Fine, I dare you back!" Yugi sat and watched as the two challenged each other. He sighed.

"_I could get any girl in the world before they could get a girl here_," Yami said and Yugi chuckled. He looked off at the crowd and past it when he saw her walk in.

Nix looked really happy, especially with the guy around her shoulders. Two girls followed behind them. Tea sat down. She looked up at Yugi and a look of worry cross over her face.

"You okay, Yugi?" she asked. The next thing they knew, Yugi was now Yami. He stared out across the dance floor and watched as Nix pulled the boy up to dance with her. Joey and Tristan looked out too.

"Listen, Yami, I'm sorry-" he said. The song changed to a song where the lyrics were understandable.

"I have an idea," Tea said.

Nix raised her arms up as Alec danced behind her. She wasn't grinding against his body or anything like that. She turned around and waved her hips from side to side then closed her eyes and let the beat and pace of the song take over her body.

"Ooh! You're such a great dancer!" a girl yelled at them. "Come dance with me!" Nix opened her eyes to see her dance partner get pulled away from her. She sighed and looked over to where Hailey and Riley had been sitting. Some guys had pulled them away to dance. She sighed again and maneuvered herself through the crowd towards their table. She sat down and a waitress gave her some water.

She cursed the girl who took Alec away from her and also the boys who grabbed Hailey and Riley before she could. She took a drink of her water.

"Mind if I join you?" someone asked. She looked up and stared at Yami. She frowned and stood up.

"Yes I do mind," she snapped. "How is it everywhere I go, you always seemed to find me? You know, when I am around you, bad things always happen to me when I'm around." She pushed herself out from the table and walked towards the back door when, suddenly, the building began to shake. The music cut out and the room was silent.

The next thing she knew something exploded underneath the building. Soon kids started bounding for every exit trying to get out before anything else happened. Nix was pushed around; she heard Alec calling out her name. She looked up, but only saw him for a minute till she was pushed to the ground. Yami caught her and pulled her under a table. Something else erupted in the building and the trembling earth beneath them began to crack.

A huge gap ripped through the building taking whatever was in its way down. Nix closed her eyes and leaned up against Yami and wrapped her arms around him for safety.

The next thing she knew, she was falling. Nix felt her hands slipping away from Yami and she opened her eyes. He was gone and so was she.


	8. Chapter 8: Into the Darkness

Chapter 8

Into the Darkness

"I'm standing here in front of the _Tops, _where a huge explosion has erupted through the building destroying the flood inside. A great amount of young adults were caught in this sudden collapsing of the floor and were trapped underneath the rubble. Firefighters and paramedics are looking for ways to get these people free…" The reporter was thrown off balance as Nina pushed her way through the crowd. Mokuba followed closely behind her apologizing for everyone she bumped into.

"Please excuse us," he said to the reporter who gave him and her both dirty look then went back to work. He sighed and went back to chasing her. He reached out and grabbed her hand. "Nina, you need to be more careful, people are starting to get suspicious and mad at you."

Nina yanked her hand out of Mokuba's grasp.

"I don't care," she snapped at him. "I just want to make sure Nix is alright." She turned around and went to the triage sight. No one was dead, but there were a lot of critically injured boys and girls lying on the ground groaning. She maneuvered around the rows of victims and lesser injured people, who were helping the wounded, looking for her cousin.

She wasn't there.

Nina's heart began to thud inside her chest as if it were going to explode all over everything. The next thing she knew she was crying. Some of the damaged people began to freak out and she and Mokuba were escorted out far from the triage sight.

Mokuba put his arm around her and tried to calm her down, but there was just no having it. She moaned Nix's name almost as if she said it enough her cousin would return and everything would be fine.

"Hey," he said smiling, "they'll find her. I promise you that. Did you know she saved me once from a little gang? She's strong and she'll be fine."Nina looked up at him and stared at him. She knew Nix would help people out on the streets and even get into fights for a friend's safety, but a total stranger was completely knew to her.

"The little boy's right," someone said behind them. There voice was deep yet squeaky at the same time. The two kids turned around. A tall, bone-thin man stood in an alley smiling at them. "You're Nix's cousin, aren't you?"He approached them and Nina nodded her head. His smile grew bigger.

"Great! I know where your cousin is. She's too injured to move now, but she'll be better soon. Follow me and I'll take you to her."

Mokuba didn't trust him at all and thought Nina didn't either, but before he could say or do anything she was right behind the man mankind sure she didn't lose track of him. The little girl thought this man could take her to her cousin. Mokuba sighed and followed along.

Hurting was just an understatement to the pain she felt throughout her body.

Nix opened her eyes and stared out into the darkness hat engulf the room she was in; wherever that was. She moved her arm and a sharp pain shot through her whole body. She cursed out loud then blinked. Everything that had happened to her was a blur for a moment, but it all came flooding back to her soon.

She remembered snapping at Yami then the floor exploding, her hugging him for dear life… She blushed at the memory. She remembered falling and letting go and… Her head shot up. Yami wasn't anywhere near her. She remembered letting go, of course, but they couldn't have been separated by that much.

She sighed and shook her head.

"Maybe if I'm lucky he fell on his head and forgot everything about me and only me so he'd leave me alone," she said to the darkness chuckling to herself as she laid her head against what felt like a rock.

"But, he's okay," the darkness replied back. Nix's eyes shot open. A little white light danced around the black and gloom that encased her. She stared at it as it seemed to be getting brighter and brighter. It made her feel warm inside, and for a minute, her pain subsided. She lifted up her hand and reached out to it, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

Find him, her mind kept screaming at her as she struggled to stand up. That light or whatever it was it was most likely just something the pain had created so she would feel right. Or, at least that's what she thought. Nix could feel the bones in her body aching and grinding against each other and the blood from some unknown wound flowing down her body like sweat. She grabbed onto the wall and slowly walked herself into the unknown abyss that was lying out before her.

"This is the right way," she mumbled, "And he's down there. I just know he is."

**Author:**

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait and really short story. It's like been a really crazy week and I haven't had time to update. There will be more to come and I promise the next chapter will be longer and better… lolz**


	9. Chapter 9: A Friend

Chapter 9

A Friend

"What was I thinking?" Nix asked herself. She stared at a bunch of rocks that had blocked her path; this was the third blocked tunnel. She leaned up against the wall. "It's no use. I've been walking these tunnels for hours now and I the only thing I've heard or seen was a dumb light that my mind made up. Not only that but it wanted me to go and find him! I could quite possibly be crazy."

She sighed and slid down the cave wall so she was sitting. "Maybe, everyone else is dead...""

Just then, she heard footsteps coming towards her. Her head spun around faster than lighting could strike and her eyes grew wide. She wasn't sure if she was happy to hear someone coming towards her or freaked out cause she wasn't sure who it was and how safe it was. Nix picked up a rock then crawled up the wall so she was ready in case she had to run or fight. The footsteps grew louder and louder and louder, but it was hard to hear because her heart was pounding hard.

Suddenly, the feet stopped walking. She held her breath and waited. Nothing. She slowly let her breath out and lowered her guard. Was she hearing things again?

Without warning, out of the darkness, a rock came hurling at her and hit her square in the head. Nix dropped the rock she holding and fell backwards onto the hard, stone covered ground. She wasn't sure if a new wound had opened on her head, but she could feel more blood trickling down her neck. But, she didn't feel it long; soon she was senseless to the world.

She felt warm... Not as warm as she felt when she had hallucinated the light, but warm as if she was next to a fire.

Nix's eyes fluttered open. Her eyes weren't met with the darkness like before, but with the friendly glow of a fire burning. The fire outlined someone tending to it.

_I bet that's the person who threw the rock at my head, _she thought. Slowly she reached over and grabbed a nearby rock. She sat herself up straight and lifted the rock over her shoulder. She carefully aimed, but stopped just before she threw it and stared at her arm. It was bandaged! So war her leg and head.

"Were you going to throw that at me?" someone said. Nix looked up and blinked at the boy standing above her. She had never seen him in her life, but damn was he cute! She blushed and threw the rock to the side. He smiled and knelt down and checked the bandages on her body. She hadn't realized it earlier when she was looking at her casts, but she was all beat up. Her left leg alone had at least 25 cuts and a lot more bruises.

"Who are you?" she asked her voice cracking. "My name is Kian," he said not looking up at her till he thought her bandages were all well and secure. She stood up and held out his hand to help her up. She took it.

"I didn't think I would meet someone down here," she said. "I thought everyone had died." He chuckled.

"So I heard." She blushed. _Did he hear everything?! _she shouted inside her head. He led her over to the camp fire and sat her down next to it.

"Where did you get all the wood and how did you start it?" Nix asked him.

"I used the wooden beams that fell down with the building," he said. "And I started it with some matches." She nodded her head and started to feel a little uneasy because she could be with a man who likes to set things on fire.

The two fell quiet and Nix stared at him. He had black hair with green highlights and a tattoo that had some beetles circling the top part of the sun. The rest of the tattoo was covered by his clothes. Just then, she realized something.

"Wow, you got lucky," she said smiling "it doesn't look like you got a single scratch on your body." Kian flinched and didn't say anything. He just stared into the fire intensely. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Yeah, I got pretty lucky," he said. "Instead of falling, the part of the building that collapsed where I was just turned into a dirt slide it seemed." She laughed and nodded her head. He stood up.

"Come, I know away out of here," he said as he helped pick her up. She nodded her head again and began to walk behind him slowly. The two weren't even 10 feet from the campfire when they heard two feet running at them. They turned around just in time for Nix to catch a glimpse of Yami coming at her. She frowned.

"What do you want, Yami?" she snapped. He shook his head.

"No, I'm Yugi," he said putting his hands on his knees and breathing heavily. _He must have been running for awhile, _she thought.

"Same difference; now, what do you want?"

"I'm here to take you out." She scuffled.

"Where do you think I'm going," she said shaking her head. Yugi looked behind her and looked up at Kian who was staring down at him with a death glare. Yugi looked back at her.

"The exit is this way, though," he insisted. He reached for her hand, but she yanked it away before he could grab it.

"You think I want to go anywhere with you?!" Nix shouted at him. "Every time I go anywhere or just come close to you or Yami I get hurt. I'm done!" She turned around quickly and ended the conversation there. She walked over to Kian and grabbed his hand. "Let's go."

Yugi stared out and watched them get consumed by the darkness. He was soon Yami again.

"I don't trust him," he said and followed behind them.

"I see light!" Nix shouted as the two came to the end of their journey. "Come on! Let's hurry!" She moved as fast as she could on her bad leg and pushed open the door that held the light. She smiled as the beams engulfed her.

"Nix!" Nina shouted. Her eyes grew wide and she looked across a room decked out in ancient Egyptian decor. Nina and Mokuba were stranded in a cage with a great, beast of a man, with a tattoo of a lion on his face, next to the cage.

"What the hell?!" Nix snapped at him and began to run at him her fist ready to make contact with his face. He grabbed her by the wrist though and threw her through the door she entered in. She landed on Yami. She grumbled and shook her head. She could hear Nina screaming for her as she struggled to get up. Yami grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

"Don't," he said, "You'll get hurt." Nix's face was twisted with anger and fear. She lifted her fist and smashed it against Yami's cheek.

"Can't you take a hint?!" she shouted at him. She was on the verge of crying. "Leave me alone! I don't need your help or anything like that!"

"Nix," Kian said, "Don't you want to see your cousin safe?" She shot off Yami and ran back into the room.

"She held back," Yami said touching his raw cheek. Yugi was dying inside from the pain.

"_You call that holding back?!" _he shouted. Yami got up and dusted himself off then slowly and cautiously made his way to the door as Yugi protested inside for him not to.

Nix flew through the broken door and stared at Kian who was sitting at the table in front of the man and the cage. In his hand was a deck of dueling cards. He smirked.

"You're kidding me, right?" she said. He shook his head and tossed her cousin's deck at her.

"Play or we kill them here," he said. "We want to see how the Pharaoh's girlfriend plays." She slammed the cards on the table.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" She shouted. He held up a picture of her kissing him on the cheek. She blushed. She had totally forgotten about that day and she started to feel bad about being such a dick and treating Yami like garbage. Kian was shuffling his cards impatiently.

"Any day now," he said. She frowned and sat down.

"Let's duel" were two words she thought she would have never heard herself say in a lifetime. Nix pulled out five cards and stared at them hoping that there was any chance of her beating these guys. She swallowed hard they began.

Yami stood in the doorway halfway hidden from them as he watched her struggle play the game. Within 10 minutes of playing, she had lost. Kian shook his head and snapped his fingers. The giant man walked over to Nix and lifted her off the chair she was sitting in. Without warning, he drilled his fist into her stomach then threw her against the wall.

Her vision and hearing slowly gave as she watched her cousin and Mokuba's cage get picked up and carried away.

"I gotta go," she heard a guy with a Brooklyn accent say and two others followed him. They said their good-byes and a door open and closed behind them.

Nix opened her eyes and stared at a white ceiling. She squinted her eyes because it was so bright. All at once her memory of the past couple of hours began to flood into her mind making her shoot up from the bed she was laying on and cry out "Nina."

Nix awkwardly turned her head and looked at Yami who was staring at her from across the room. He was silent and went and grabbed her some water.

"Did you save me?" she asked taking the water from him. He nodded his head. "Why?"

"Because, you looked like you needed help and I'm not one to let someone suffer," he said. She stared at him for a minute. It had to be one of the corniest things she had ever heard anyone say, even though she was just like that. He smiled at her.

Her lip started to tremble and soon tears were flowing her eyes and streaming down her cheeks. She tapped her fist into his chest.

"You... idiot..." she sobbed. "After everything I've done to you, you still save me and treat me like a friend... why? What is it about me that makes you do this to me?!" Yami didn't answer. Nix pulled him close and cried into his coat.


	10. Chapter 10: Teach Me How to Duel

**Author:**

**OOPS! Totally, forgot to revise chapter 10, heh. But, anyway, here's the revised version and I hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 10

Teach Me How to Duel

"How long has she been sitting there, Yugi?" Tea asked. Yugi and the gang sat around his house awkwardly hanging out with each other occasionally making a quick glance over to Nix as she brooded on the balcony. Yugi hadn't told his friends that she had lost her cousin after she was forced to play a game she had never heard of until this year. All he had told them was she lost her first duel. Yugi shrugged.

"She was out there when I woke up this morning," he said. Not once had he seen her move from that spot, not even when he brought her up food or to even use the restroom. He stared out at her. For some reason, he had a gnawing feeling in him saying that this was somehow his fault. Joey slammed his fist into the coffee table separating him and Yugi.

"I'm tired of this girl's bipolar attitude," he snapped and shot up out of his seat. "So what if she lost her the first duel of her life, that doesn't mean she can act this way."

"Yo, Joey, what are you doing?" Tristan asked as Joey walked away with his fist clenched.

"Puttin' this girl her place, that's what I'm doing!" Yugi got up and began to walk after him as backup.

Nix pulled her knees close to her face as she sat on the balcony's wall. She knew that Yugi and his friends were talking about her, but she didn't care that much; that was the last thing on her mind. A breeze blew past her and tossed her hair around her face and dried out her tear soaked eyes. Still, she didn't care.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled. In an instant, Nix had reacted by forcing her fist into their stomach. She looked up and saw Joey grabbing his stomach with both hands and bending forward.

"Oh," she said solemnly, "It's just you." She turned away and began to ignore him and the rest of his friends again.

"Yeah, it's just me!" Joey said as he grabbed Nix by the collar and pulled her off the wall. "What's your deal anyways? Every time I meet you, you're always a complete and total jerk to us who has a giant chip on her shoulder that ends up hurting Yugi! And then I come to find out that you kissed him?"Nix shot a death glance over at Yugi who was blushing. "Are you bipolar or somethin'? If that's the case you might want to ask your doctor to up the dosage of pill you're taking." Nix sighed and put her hands on Joeys.

"I'm not afraid to throw you over this balcony ledge," she said with no emotion. Joey's face became flushed and he gritted his teeth. He yanked his fist away from her grasp and raised it towards her.

"Why you little…" he began when Yugi's grandpa came up the stairs.

"Nix, you have a visitor," he said. She pulled herself easily out of his grasp and walked towards him.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Seto Kiba." The room went quiet and the tension from her and Joey swiftly evaporated into nothing. Nix nodded her head and walked down the stairs with him as Yugi followed behind while his friends creeped behind them.

Seto stood in the shop and tapped his foot impatiently. His arms were crossed and a look of pure anger consumed his face. He heard them coming down the stairs. The old man walked up to him.

"Here you are, Mister-" he began.

"Out of my way, old man," Kiba said as he pushed Yugi's grandpa out of his way and shoved his face into Nix's face.

"You have some nerve," he said.

"Excuse me?" she said.

"You are the reason Mokuba was kidnapped!" he accused. "You're dumb cousin helped get him trapped by the God Stalkers!"

"That's who those guys are?" she asked as her head shot up.

"Don't play dumb with me, girl! You knew who they were! You gave them Mokuba as well as your cousin so they would help find your mother while bringing down the Kiba Corp Empire as well as your uncles."

Nix's hand collided with CIBA's face as Tea, Joey, and Tristan came down just in time to see him fall to the ground. Seto looked up wide eyed while he placed his hand on the cheek she slapped. She was starting at the ground with her hands clenched.

"If I wanted to bring down my uncle's corporation, I would have left Nina to the hands of the guy who kidnapped her at the beginning of the week. If it was your empire I was after I would have left Mokuba to die at the hands of the three men who were chasing after him the night you met with my uncle at his grand party." She looked at him as fury burned through her eyes. "Where were you for that Kiba?! HUH?!"

"Mokuba never told me about that happening to him," Kiba came back. "You're bluffing."

"Why would he?" she snapped back. "Ask me have you even talked to your brother sense the night of the party? Or are you just to self absorbed in your dueling game to even take notice in your younger brother?" Kiba stood up and straightened himself out. He spat on the ground towards her direction.

"Shut up, you bitch, you don't anything about mine and his relationship," he said hushed as he leaned down so that their eyes were parallel with each other.

"You should leave, Kiba," Nix said quietly, "Unless you want me to cut up your dueling deck." She smirked as his face tensed up; he quickly left after that. Nix sighed and turned to help Yugi's grandpa up.

"Wow Nix, that was so cool!" Tea cheered.

"Yeah, I've never seen Kiba speechless in my whole life," Tristan added. Joey walked over and patted her on the back.

"I didn't know your cousin had been kidnapped," he said smiling like a goofball, "If I'd a known that, I wouldn't have created a scene upstairs."

"Did you ever think of asking?" she asked. Joey's smile disappeared and he blinked. She looked up at him and sighed. "I'm hungry."

"Bye!" Yugi called as his friends walked home. "See you tomorrow." They waved back. He smiled and closed the door then went upstairs. Nix was sitting on the couch her hands wrapped around her knee. He cautiously walked in and sat across from her; she was staring out the window. She sighed and looked over at him.

"What's your deal?" she asked.

"My deal?" he replied. She nodded.

"Yeah, your deal; you're like two people aren't you? How does that happen?" Yugi smiled. For a second he thought he was going to get lectured on something.

"You mean how one minute I could be me and the next I'm Yami?" She nodded her head. "Well, you see, I don't really know. See, this all happened when I put together this puzzle my grandpa brought back from his trip in Egypt. When I finished the puzzle an ancient pharaoh came out and took control over my body when I needed help. Now we share the same body." Yugi rubbed the back of his head and blushed out of embarrassment. "Sorry for the crappy explanation." Nix shook her head.

"So what you're telling me is there is a dead guy inside your body?" she chuckled. "And the only way this dead guy comes out is through some ancient Egyptian magic and only when you're in trouble?" Yugi nodded. "That's cool. My mom used to be super into ancient Egyptian stuff…"

"Oh? Where is she now?" Nix frowned.

"We got separated a long time ago and I haven't seen her sense."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Both of my parents are dead as well."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm not even sure she is dead." She sighed, "If I knew she was dead, that would at least bring some closure to my life." The room fell hushed and still as her and Yugi bonded over an inept and gloomy topic of their lives. She shook her head then looked up and gave him a faint smile.

"So between you and Yami, which is the better duelist?" she asked.

"Him," he replied.

"Really now," she said standing up and walking over to Yugi. She sat down on the coffee table and reached across and grabbed his necklace. She lifted up to her face.

"Hellooo…" she called into it. "Can you hear me?" Nix tapped on the eye of the Millennium Puzzle and inspected it. "Listen, Yami, I need your help. Mind coming out and-"

"Nix you can stop now." She looked up at Yami who was smiling at her. "You know I can hear everything you say so you don't have to the puzzle." She blushed and shoved the Millennium Puzzle at his chest; he let out an "oomf" as it collided with him.

"I need your help," she said getting serious with him. "I want you to teach me how to duel. I'll even pay you somehow. My uncle is rich and-" Yami pressed his finger against her lips and her stomach began to dance.

"You don't have to pay me back anything," he said pulling his finger way from her lips and smiling. "We're friends after all. But, if you're adamant about paying me back, I'll think of something." He stood up and patted her on the head. "We'll start tomorrow."

She looked up at him and blushed.

"Yami…" she said. "If you ever do that again, I'll bite your finger off."


	11. Chapter 11: Into the Puzzle

Chapter 11

Into the Puzzle

Nix stared down at the cards in her hand as Yugi sat back with his cards and waited for her to complete her first turn. They had been sitting in the same position for a good 30 minutes. Nix's eye twitched. The whole morning and most of the afternoon Yami had been shoving everything he knew about the game down her throat and now she was facing Yugi in a battle.

_He must think I'm a total loser, _she thought as he looked up and stared at the clock. He yawned.

"Don't rush me!" she shouted at him abruptly as her fist hit the table and all the cards went up in the air. They slowly drifted down and lay randomly all over the floor. She placed the cards in her hand down on the table.

"I give," she said. Yugi sighed and went to pick up his decks… again. This was the fifth battle he had attempted to play with her, but each time she had given up on her first turn. He was amazed it hadn't taken her a good hour to admit defeat. Nix sighed.

"This whole dueling thing just isn't my forte," she said as she picked up a card next to her and looked at it. Yugi laughed.

"You'll get it sooner or later," he said looking up and smiling at her. She glared at him. He stopped smiling at her. _Is she going to attack me, _he thought as she stood up and walked over to him. She knelt down and looked at him in the eyes; she placed her arms around his neck.

"Yugi…" she said as she pulled him close to her. He was blushing like crazy when she placed her lip so very close to his ear that he could feel the slightest of breaths cool his hot ears.

"Nix…" he sputtered out of his mouth. "What are you-" Nix moved her head so that their eyes were staring into each other's again. She placed one of her fingers on his lips and quieted him down. She pressed her face close to his so that a clothes width separated their lips. Yugi knew what was to come next; he squeezed his eyes shut tight and puckered his lips.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He opened his eyes. Nix was looking at him confused and wasn't in his face. However, her arms were still around his neck. "What did you think I'd really do that? Nah, all I wanted to do was get this necklace off of your neck."

In a flash, Nix had lifted herself above his head (even his crazy hair) and pulled the necklace off from around his neck. She landed upside down on the couch behind them. She grinned as Yugi looked at her horrified. She sat up and moved just as he leaped from his spot and collided with the couch. With every step he took, she moved two steps away from him. She was swift and had reflexes like a cat.

Nix laughed as Yugi cried over his precious Millennium Puzzle. She flipped back onto the couch then rolled off and flipped the couch over stopping Yugi from chasing after her. She laughed.

"I just want to see if I can become a good duelist with this necklace like you," she said as she slipped the necklace over her head. Yugi called for her not to do it, but it was too late; it was already on.

The room fell silent and no one dared to move. Nix looked up at Yugi who was looking at her with the greatest expression of shock to ever come across anyone in the world.

Suddenly, Nix started to laugh. She grabbed her sides "And you thought something bad would happen!" Right as she said that, the puzzle began to move and shake against her chest. One of the corners punctured her boob and she cried out and grabbed it. She frowned.

"Ok, I don't want this anymore," she said as she tried to pull it off, but before she could, the magic from the Millennium Puzzle collapsed her body and mind. Nix fell to the floor as Yugi cried and watched her die in front of him. He ran over and scooped her up in his arms. She was still breathing. He gave a sigh of relief and started to pull the necklace off her, when this nagging feeling fell over him.

_Don't take the it off, _it said and he obeyed.

Nix could feel herself falling and then colliding with the brick built ground. She placed her hand on her head and looked around. Darkness. She sighed and stood up as images of the last time she fell into somewhere dark came flooding into her head, although her memories were all around her. She took a step backwards as her eyes grew wide.

"Where am I?" she asked as the world around her lit up and she was staring at what looked like tomb.

_Author's Note:_

_Sorry for the quick little update, I just wanted to get something typed up before I left for camp this weekend. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little… "interlude" and there will definitely be more to come. _


	12. Chapter 12: Twists

Chapter 12

Twists

Nix stumbled around the catacombs she had fallen into with her hand brushing lightly against the wall looking for a way out. The tunnels were well lit and the walls were littered with hieroglyphics that she had no idea how to read. She cursed.

"Why can't I go through one day now without something weird happening," she complained. "Dear life, is that too much to ask?" She sighed and turned a corner that lead into a dimly lit area. She stared at it for a minute then turned back around.

"Nope, not doing it; there is no way I'm…"

"Nix…" someone called softly for her. She turned around and stared down the hallway. Her eyes were wide and she took a step forward.

"Mom?" she questioned in disbelief. The tunnels fell silent and the lights around her softened then died so that the hallway in front of her was the only lit way. She could feel ghostly arms around her legs, working them into the chamber slowly and with caution. Her heart was thumbing against her rib cage.

"Nix, your mother needs you now." Her heart leaped forward and took her legs into dead sprint down the catacomb as she sweat fell like crazy down her face. She could feel tears welding at the sides of her eyes. She closed her eyes and pushed all her thoughts and questions out of her mind. She just needed to focus on one thing.

As she past intersections, the lights in other hallways died out creating a path that she needed to take. The voice of her mother got louder and louder with every step she took forward; soon it almost felt like she was just down the hall. A huge smile spread across her face as she turned the last corner.

Standing in front of her was her mother.

Nix stood dumbfounded and dared not to blink she didn't want to lose sight of her mother. She smiled and opened her arms out to her.

"My daughter," she said, "You've finally found me." Nix ran at her as she began to cry tears of joy. It had been so long sense she had seen her mother's smile and felt a mother's warm embrace. She moved her arms out and prepared to wrap her arms around her mother, when all of a sudden, her mother burst into flames.

Nix aghast stopped short of the flames engulfing her and took a step back. Her mother called out at her to save her before she died, but there was nothing she could do.

"Do you want to lose me again?" her mother shouted at her. "Don't you love me?!"

Nix, unnerved and confused fell to the floor and watched her mother burn to ash in front of her. She sobbed all the liquid out of her body through her eyes it seemed while her mother began to curse her for not saving her and that it was her fault she was lost.

"YOU'RE THE WORST CHILD EVER!" her mother shouted and the catacomb around her began to collapse and crumble. "Just die already!" The floor gave out and she was plunging into the pits of hell.

Nix closed her eyes. She didn't care anymore. She was tired of everyone she loved getting hurt or losing them. She just wanted it to end, for everything to stop, even if that meant her world. She happily opened her heart up to hell and granted all its demons to overtake her mind.

But, there was no hell.

There was no demons setting fire to her happy memories and sitting behind her eardrums and telling her unsettling whispers and the devil wasn't sitting on her heart and poking it till it popped. No, she felt a hand grab her wrist and hold on to her. She opened her eyes just as her mother fell down to the inferno beneath her feet. She cried out and began to struggle to be set free. She looked up and evil eyed Yami.

"Let me go!" she shouted at him as she began to wiggle around. She looked back down at her mother who was now cooking inside the flaming pits. She cried out and started to battle her way out of his grasp now.

"There's no point!" she heard Yami yell. She looked up at him. Disappointment was an understatement of how he viewed her right now. "Are you stupid? Are you telling me you'd kill yourself before you saved you cousin? That's not who you are, Nix!" She stopped wiggling and peered up at him. "That's right! You think you're hiding your true self sometimes by putting up this tough girl persona and pretend not to care about everyone else, but in reality, you're just a big softy who actually cares about people. Besides, that wasn't your mother. That was just an image the tomb created. This whole thing has been a lie!"

The air around her and Yami died while Nix took in everything he said. She looked down at the burning woman who cried out for her.

"Yami," she finally said. "Pull me up." He smirked as she looked up at him; she practically had determination spewing out of her pores. He yanked her up and she stood up. She smiled at him then wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered then pushed him off. "Come on, I want out of this nightmare." Yami followed behind her till they came to their first intersection. She sighed.

"Your turn to lead," she said turning to him. "Get me out of here." Yami stepped in front of her and turned left while she, now, followed closed behind him. The two walked in silence, each not having much to say to each other, for a while when suddenly she stopped.

"Hey, Yami," she said. "If that whole incident back there was nothing, but say, a mirage, then how do I know if you're real?" He turned around. Her fists were clenched as if she would strike him at anytime.

"Relax," he said sticking his hands in his pockets, "If I wasn't real then I wouldn't have been able to touch you. Besides, a mirage here should only be of people that you care about. Are you saying you care about me?" Nix unclenched her hands and blushed. Yami smiled and blush a little too. She frowned and pushed him.

"Don't get any ideas," she said. He smirked and the next thing she knew she was dressed like a belly dancer. She gaped at him while he laughed.

"You see, this is my world, and anything I wish, happens," he explained. Nix smirked this time and cracked her fingers.

"Change me back now, before I end up getting out of here myself, taking this little necklace of yours and melting it down into gold bars then dropping it in the middle of the Pacific Ocean." He snapped his fingers and she was back to normal. She laughed and the continued on their way.

They had been walking for what seemed like hours, but Yami had told her that hours here was actually minutes where her body was. Now, they were at what looked like the exit. She smiled and pushed the door open.

The next thing she knew her head was smacked against the floor and a crocodile was in her face. But, this croc had parts of other animals attached to it.

"Down, Ammit," she heard someone call out from inside the door she had just opened. A great man with the face of a jackal stepped out of the door way. "You must be, Nix he said. I understand you want a safe trip out." Yami helped her to her feet while the strange guy walked back into the room. Nix followed him in with Yami behind her and the demon nipping at the Pharaoh's ankles. The animal man sat down at a table with a scale on it and looked up at her.

"Please sit," he said and she obeyed. "Seeing how you're not dead, I must judge you on something else." Nix stared at him; she was so confused. The jackal man shuffled a deck of cards then laid it out in front of her. "Please, give me your dueling deck."

"She doesn't know how to play!" Yami shouted behind her. "This is an unfair advantage. If you must duel anyone, then, please, duel…" His voice trailed off, and Nix looked behind her. He was gone. A thick fog had rolled in around them. She looked up at the man who was shaking his head.

"How rude," he said. "Interrupting the ceremony like that. Why I should just feed him to my pet for such insolents, now, your deck please."

She handed it to him. The jackal man looked at it then handed it back to her.

"I asked for your deck," he said. "Are you trying to be discourteous towards me? Remember, little girl, I am what stands between you and returning home." She gulped as she felt Ammit snapping at her legs. She let out a breath to try and calm herself down.

"I don't have a deck of my own," she said with her head lowered. "This deck belongs to a friend of mine. He lent it to me in hope of teaching me to be a duelist. You see, Mister Jackal-Head-Man, I am in a hunt for some people who kidnapped someone very close to me." Her head snapped up. "If you could let me live till I find that person, I will gladly let you take me to hell after that!"

Ammit stopped nibbling on her legs and walked over to the man across from her. The beast lay down next to him and seemed to grumble in disappointment. She stared at the man as he began to laugh at her.

"Remember, this was your idea, not mine." Without warning, the jackal man's upper body shot across the table. His hands had turned to claws and were aiming for her chest. Nix jumped out of her seat and smacked his hand away then stumbled backwards. Ammit lunged at her and grabbed a hold of her ankle. She screamed out then kicked the animal off her, but as she looked up, the jackal man was over her. He was grinning from ear to ear. The next thing she knew, he had his hand inside her chest. She could feel her heart slowly being squeezed and then forcefully being yanked out.

She fell to the floor gasping for air with tears flowing down her cheek. There was so much pain, but she couldn't muster the sound to express it. Her vision was fading and she honestly felt her life being pulled away from her.

"Quit being so dramatic," he said sitting back down. Nix blinked then sat up.

_Was this just a weird hallucination_ she questioned.

"No, it was real, but you wouldn't be able to feel it in this room. Please, retake your seat." She obeyed. The fog around them began to disappear and she could hear Yami yelling at them.

_Has he been yelling at us this whole time, _she thought. She looked up at him and shook her head.

"Nix, what do you think you're doing handing him you, I mean, my deck? That's how a duel is started and-"

"Relax, Pharaoh," the jackal man said standing up and walking over to her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and smile like a jackal would smile when they came upon food. "The girl and I came to an agreement. She is free to leave. Please escort her out of here."

She looked up at him. Everything seemed normal somehow. The man tossed a key at Yami and pointed him in the direction he needed to go. Nix picked up her deck and the man walked past her.

"You are bound to this place now," he said before stopping and examining her. "It's weird you remind me of a young ruler from the age of Pharaoh. Well, at least, I think it was from those days; time seems to blur into nothing here."

"I'm not the reincarnation of some Egyptian Queen or anything like that," she bluntly and left.

"Hey, Yami," Nix said. The spikey-haired guy in front of her turned his head towards her direction. The two were right in front of the exit from the Millennium Puzzle and had been walking in total silence sense they left the jackal man.

"What," he replied.

"I know I've already said this, but thank you, for everything." She stopped and smiled. He stopped too and turned around fully. He was sure she was going to cry and get mushy, but she didn't. "I can't wait to learn how to duel now!" He blinked then chuckled and turned around and unlocked the door.

"I have a question for you though," she said. "Why do you help me so much? I know you said because we're friends and whatever, but what made you take interest in me in the first place? Could it be that you have a thing for me?"

Yami stared at her; he got very tense, but he didn't show it. He had a great poker face. She walked up to him and put her hand on his face and gently rubbed her finger on his cheek. He sighed and took her hand off his face.

"You should leave now, before you get stuck in here permanently," he said. She chuckled at little then smiled at him with a gentle sigh.

"You're right. I'll be seeing you around. Bye." She ran through the gate. The gates shut quickly afterward. Yami sighed again and turned around and began to head back.

"Yes…" he mumbled to no one.


	13. Chapter 13: Deadline

Chapter 13

Deadline

"How long has she been like this?" Joey asked staring at Nix. The girl had dull eyes and stared out at nothing. She had been this way for 6 hour. Joey pressed his finger against her forehead and she fell over and smacked the back of the couch she was sitting on. Nothing. Tristan walked up next to him and poked her in the face and she fell to the side. Still, nothing. The two looked at each other and grinned.

"Guys, what are you doing?" Yugi asked.

"Oh, nothing," Joey replied and looked at him slyly. Tristan ran across the room and grabbed markers. The two giggled like children in a candy store as they drew across Nix's face with markers.

"Go get a camera, Tristan," Joey said and Tristan obeyed.

"Guys, you shouldn't do that," Yugi said as they sat next to the unconscious girl and took pictures with her. "She could wake up any minute now." Joey snorted.

"Relax, I doubt she'll wake up soon," he said as the two each stuck a finger up her nose and stuck their tongues out.

Nix opened her eyes, just as the flash went off. Tristan and Joey flinched as she growled at them. They slowly turned their heads and looked at her with an "oh shit" smile. Nix reached up and grabbed their arms and yanked their fingers out of her nose then flung them over the side of the couch. The two rolled across the floor and smack against the wall; she pounced on the back of the couch then leaped off and body slammed them then proceeded with the beating.

Tea and Yugi just sat in a corner and watched the beating commence and laugh. The two deserved it.

* * *

Yugi walked up to Nix after about 10 minutes of watching a really bad match of Ultimate Fighter. He handed her a towel for her to wash her face with, while Tea walked over to the other two and handed them each ice packs. Nix sat back down on the couch and Yugi and Tea sat across from her.

She took off the necklace and tossed it at Yugi.

"Here, I don't want this anymore," she said slightly agitated. Yugi freaked as he fumbled to catch the Millennium Puzzle before shattered on the floor. He caught it.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Yeah, did you enter the Pharaohs world?" Tea asked.

"I don't really know," Nix lied. "My memory is kind of fuzzy."

"And you couldn't have forgotten how to fight?!" Joey complained behind her. She turned her head and gave him a death glare and he quickly shut up. Tea giggled and Yugi chuckled as Nix slowly turned her head back towards them. She looked at them then shook her head and sighed.

"I'm tired now," she said and stood up and stressed her arms out. "Who would have known that being unconscious most of the day could make you so tired." Nix laughed.

* * *

"Do you feel helpless?"

Nix opened her eyes. Around her the world burned and the smoke clogged her wind pipe. She tried to reach up and grab her throat, but her hands were chained to a chair. Sweat dripped down her body while someone laughed across from her. She looked up and saw the jackal man standing tall with a smug smirk spread across his face and his arms were folded.

"Do you like it?" he asked walking over and grabbing her chin. "This is just a little something to remind you of our deal." Nix gagged on the fumes from the fire. "I've brought you hear to add to our little deal. If you didn't know, I'm a very busy man and I don't know how long this search for the people who kidnapped whoever you were looking for. So, I'm here to set a dead line for you. Can we say a month? Two at the most?"

Nix realized what he was doing. She looked up at him and with the last of her air she forced out "You son of a bitch, you'll take me to hell when I'm done with my quest! There is no time line." The jackal man frowned and the chains around her wrists disappeared, but reappeared around her ankles. Right away, she grabbed her throat and coughed for air. The flames around her began to burn hotter and hotter. She looked up at him.

"You insolent little brat," he spat at her. He had a dagger in one hand and her heart in another. "Let me rephrase myself, you have one month to find your "special person" or you die. Because you promise from the bottom of your heart…" The jackal man took the dagger and pierced her heart with it.

* * *

Nix shot up in her bed. Her head was pounding and her body was wet from sweat. She gasped for oxygen and grabbed her heart. It hurt so much. Suddenly, she began to cough up blood. She stared at it in her hand.

_It's just a side effect, Nix_, she said to herself, _this is what you get for saving Nina; remember whatever it takes._


	14. Chapter 14: A Dueler's Dance

Chapter 14

A Duelers Dance

"... And when I woke up, she was gone," Yugi said to his friends as they swarmed around his desk. Joey grunted.

"Pfft," he spit, "that doesn't surprise me one bit. Did you check your house and made sure that everything was still in its place? She might have stolen somethin', Yuug."

"Just because she kicked your butt, Joey, doesn't mean you have to make up false accusations about her," Tea snapped at him.

"Yeah, if you're going to start rumors about me, at least make it a little more believable," Nix said walking past their conversation. She walked to the back of the room and dropped her bag and sat down at her desk. The gang looked up and stared at her. She had this look of intenseness across her face.

Just then the bell rang and the kids scrambled for their seats and went to their classrooms while the teacher walked in and began that days lectures.

* * *

Nix stared up at the clock. There was 15 minute left in class.

"Before I release you for some free time," the teacher spoke up, "I regret to inform you, but the annual masquerade will be cancelled due to a mix up in place." The students around Nix began to whine and gripe while she reached across from the girl next to her.

"What is the teacher talking about?" she asked.

"Every year, one class is supposed to put on the annual Masquerade Ball, but it looks like we'll be the first to not hold one," the girl next to her said. Nix looked up at the teacher who was trying to calm down the students. She raised her hand.

"Yes, Nix," the teacher said. She smirked.

"I know of a place that would work..."

* * *

"You want to let complete strangers into beautiful home... this weekend?!" Nix's Aunt yelled at her over the phone. Nix had called her uncle, but her aunt always seemed to be using his phone more than him; she used his even more than she used her own. Nix sighed.

"If I wanted to talk to you, don't you think I would have called _your phone_," she said. The connection between them fell silent for a moment. She could picture her aunt's face turning a bright red and steam tooting out of her ears.

"Listen here you little...!" her aunt began to scream at her through the phone before she pulled the phone away from her ear. The screaming continued for about 5 minutes longer till her uncle took the phone away from her.

"What is it, Nix?" he asked slightly irritated at them both. Nix explained the predicament about the location mix up for the school.

"And you're wondering if you could hold it in my home?"

"Yes," Nix replied. The line went quiet, when her uncle began to chuckle.

"For a minute, I thought you were going to call me telling me that my child had been kidnapped and you were now forced to go and find her." Nix awkwardly laughed along with him for a minute. "You know, I've always wanted you to get involved with the school, who knew it would be for a party." She knew he was smiling at her. "I'll allow it."

Nix looked over the railing down at the ballroom area of her home. Kids scrambled around with decorations and places to set up for food and the DJ stand. Her teacher stood next to her with her fingers crossed. Nix gave her a thumb up and she silently cheered. She thanked her uncle then hung up.

* * *

Nix yawned as she sat on top of the roof during lunch reading a book. Sense she helped out the kids with their location problem, people had been hounding her all with praise and such. It was really starting to annoy her; so, she snagged the roof key from the janitor and to hide.

"You know, you're not supposed to be up here," Yugi said. Nix looked up at him and mentally smacked herself in the forehead. She forgot to lock the roof door.

"I highly doubt that you of all people would turn me into the principal," she chuckled and returned to her book. Yugi smiled and sat down next to her. He didn't say anything though; he just sat there and fiddled around with his necklace. She sighed then slammed her book shut.

"Alright, what is it?" she snarled at him as she glared over at him too. He flinched and looked up at her with his big eyes.

"Well... you see... I-" he began.

"Come on! Out with it already!" Yugi took a deep breath and the next soon she was staring at Yami. He smirked.

"I'll get to the point," he said.

"Good," Nix replied and reopened her book. Yami took the book from her. She looked up at him her eyes squinted.

"Come with me to the dance, this weekend," he said. She blinked.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Nix asked.

"Well, telling you, more-or-less."

"I'm not a very good at listening to orders." She reached over and grabbed her book from him. He sighed.

"I was thinking that this would be a good way to pay me back for helping with dueling, but I guess there are other ways." He stood up began to walk away.

"One dance," she said. Her hair was covering most of her face, but he could see through some strands that she was blushing. She looked up at him. "One dance and I get to chose."

* * *

Cars upon cars pulled up in front of the grand mansion as young women and men strolled out in formal dresses and suits. Some of the students, mainly the men, walked to the house however. Yugi, Tristan, and Joey were three of these guys. Joey pulled on his collar trying to loosen it, while Tristan had his shirt already untucked. Out of the three, Yugi was the only one who hadn't done anything to his attire.

"Agh!" Joey said walking up to the steps to the main hall. "I hate dressing up in ridiculous clothes."

"Shut up, dude," Tristan said wrapping his hand around Joey and Yugi's neck, "And enjoy the view of all our female classmates prettying themselves up for our eyes." He pointed his finger towards a girl standing with her back towards them. From what they could see, she had a strapless pink dress that fish-tailed out as it reached down to about her knees. The three blushed.

Tristan pushed Joey towards her and ushered him to go and talk to her. Joey grumbled and walked up to her. He put on his best, smooth guy face. He tapped her shoulder and extended out his hand.

"Excuse me, miss, but-" he said before opening his eyes and seeing Tea looking down at him confused.

"Wow, I didn't think this mask would make my friends forget who I was," she said. The blonde flinched while behind him he could hear Tristan laughing his ass off. "Umm, was there something you wanted, Joey?" Joey blushed as he turned away from her and began to head back towards the other two.

"I just came over to bring you over to our group," he said. The four of them joined up entered the ballroom.

The room was a lavish ballroom with chandeliers lining down the middle of that illuminated the high ceilings and made the room gleam with its golden paint. The students had decorated the floor preassembled plastic statues down the entrance walk with tables covered in a light blue surrounding it and the refreshments. At the back half of the room was a grand stair case that was wrapped with black, sparkling fabric that moved up to the top and encased the DJ's table; next to the DJ stood the principal and their homeroom teacher.

The DJ handed him the microphone and he tapped on it and the room slowly hushed.

"Greetings students," he said as the room finally became dead silent. "I would like to welcome you to our annual Masquerade Ball. As many of you might have already know, this party almost didn't happen due to location issues, but our little tradition was saved when Miss Nix Offerman provided us with this lovely extension of her home. Now, please give her warm thank you applause." He turned away as the room erupted in a thunderous round-of-applause.

Nix stepped up to the balcony edge; the pharaoh was stunned. She had on a deep red dress that's top wrapped up in the front and crossed in the back and had a bottom that puffed out, but was also scrunched up. On her right hip was a rose that had been sewn on. Her mask was black and red with diamonds encrusting the face while the mask extended up into a royal club that was covered in rubies and underneath that was a small heart-shaped opening.

The principal reached out and placed his arm on her shoulder and she stepped back. He raised his hands and the applause stopped.

"I would like to remind any the students that anyone without a mask has to pay extra. Now, let our annual Masquerade Ball begin!"

Ropes around the room were pulled and a black sheet of fabric slid down the walls covering the outside. The DJ dimmed the lights and the ceiling exploded with fake stars. The kids in the room cheered and began to dance.

"What?" Joey complained. "Pay extra?"

"Yeah, this is nonsense!" Tristan piped in. "What do you think, Yu-" They looked down at Yugi who had pulled a standard masquerade mask out of his coat pocket. Tea laughed then grabbed Yugi's arm.

"Come on," she cheered. "Let's go dance." Yugi was yanked across the dance floor. Across the way, however, he watched Nix as she walked down the staircase and immediately was asked to dance. He wasn't the only one staring at her. She accepted.

* * *

"Its 11:00 already," Nix said as she sat by herself at a table. All of her classmates and more were dancing around the room and sitting at tables talking to one and other. A slow song began to play and the crowd dispersed and slowed down. Since the party had started, she hadn't seen Yugi or his friends anywhere. She gave a faint smile. Part of her was relieved, but the other part was disappointed.

"You know, a girl should be out dancing with, not sitting around; especially the girl who owns this house," someone said coming up to her. She looked up and saw Yami. She smirked.

"Nice mask," she said and offered him a seat across from her.

"No need," he declined. "I only came over here to see if you would like to join me in a dance?" She blinked at him.

"Didn't I say I got to choose the song?" she snorted. He extended and arm out.

"I didn't hear you say no." She sighed and grabbed his hand and he led her to the dance floor. He wrapped one hand around her waist and grabbed the other while she put her free hand on his shoulder and he began to lead the way. The two of them swayed to the music.

"Ouch," Nix said as he stepped on her feet. They stopped temporally and he apologized. They started to move to the beat of the song once more, till Yami stepped on her feet again.

"Ouch, Yami, do you not know how to dance?" she asked. They stopped and he blushed.

"SWITCH!" the DJ shouted and the kids around her and him pulled the two of them away from each other. She didn't know what was happening next, but she was pressed against a stranger's body as they moved to the song.

Nix looked up at the stranger and didn't recognize him from school.

"Nice place you've got here," he said. She smiled.

"Thank you," she replied.

"Who's dick did you family suck to afford this?" he asked her. Within a minute she was seeing red. She tried to thrust her fist into his face, but he had a stronger grip than she thought. He looked down at her and smirked.

"I'm just saying, people can only become rich by sucking up a rich person's shaft." He laughed in her face as she gritted her teeth. Nix raised her leg and jabbed her kneecap into his groin, right as the song ended.

The guy she was dancing with hobbled after her as she stomped away from him. He continued to laugh.

"You know, your actions towards me effect little Nina and her friend," he said. She stopped in her tracks and turned towards him. He walked past her still laughing and hobbling.

"Meet me outside," he whispered to her, "and prepare for a battle." He flashed his dueling deck and was gone. She stared out at him and blinked. She didn't have a deck; she had been borrowing Yugi's this whole time and she had left that at his house when she left.

"Nix," Yami called out and grabbed her shoulder. She jumped out of her skin and looked at Yami. "Seeing how that wasn't a whole song, does this mean I can get another dance with you?"

Nix looked at him for a minute then smiled. She grabbed his collar and pulled him down to her so that their lips met. Yami was shocked at first, but gave into the kiss soon. He closed his eyes and didn't notice as Nix pulled his deck out of his coat pocket. She pulled away from him and they stared down into each others' eyes. He blinked and she smiled up at him. Yami opened his mouth, but she simply just bowed her head and turned around and ran away from him. Her face was hot from embarrassment. Yami tried to grab her, but she was too far.

Joey and the rest of the gang ran up to his side. Tristan patted him on the back and Tea congratulated him. Joey was silent.

"Check your pockets, dude," he said. Yami looked over and him and frowned, but did what Joey said. He tapped the pocket with where his deck had been and then fumbled his arms around the rest of his pockets in a panic.

"Just as I thought," Joey said. "That girl is no good for you. She even stole your deck, and I bet as we speak she's selling her cards to that guy who she was just dancing with." Yami didn't say anything, neither did Tea; the four of them simply went out after her splitting up and searching the grounds.

* * *

Nix huffed and tripped over her dress as she sprinted down towards the lake after the mysterious man. She finally came to the lakes edge and stared out, wide eyed, at the man who was standing in middle of it. He looked at her and blinked then smirked.

"Shocked?" he teased. She straitened herself up and said nothing while the guy laughed at her. "Clever way of getting those cards, by the way. I would have never seen that coming." Nix gritted her teeth again and picked up a rock and chucked it at him. It missed, but the message was sent.

"Fine, let's go, rookie." He snapped his fingers and the ground around her began to shake. She fell over and watched as dueling stadium emerged from the lake's bed. He hopped down and the stadium lit up.

"If I win then you have tell me who took Nina and what they want from me," she snapped at him.

"Opponents move first," he said.

* * *

Yami and Tea walked around the back of the mansion while Joey and Tristan took the other side. The two had been walking in silence ever since the group had split up. Tea was shocked at how large the land Nix lived on was. She looked up at Yami who was more strict face than he usually did.

"Don't worry, about it, Yami," she said smiling. The Pharaoh looked at her confused. She looked up towards the stars, "I think she had a good reason for her actions." She turned her head towards him then stopped abruptly in her steps. She pointed past him and he looked over. Down a hill was dueling stadium that was floating on the lake with Nix and some guy dueling. The two began to run down the hill right as Nix's last monster was attack and her life points dropped to zero. The man across from her began to jump up with glee. Nix stared down at the cards in front of her. Yami and Tea looked up at her.

"Wait till the boss hears about this," he cheered as he pulled out a cell phone. "The girl dies…!" Just then a rock collided with the guys head. He stopped cheering and looked at Nix mortified.

"If I can't beat your way, then I'll do it my way," Nix said as she picked another rock and throw it at him. The man raised his arms up as she continued to collided rocks at him. Soon, Nix was climbing down into the battle area where she continued to bombard him with rocks. The man cursed and active his side of the field and summoned the High Tide Gyojin and ordered it to attack her. But, she was already climbing up his side of the dueling area. She lifted herself up to so they were face to face when the fish monster attacked her, but also him.

They were both flung into the water.

Tea cried out in shock while Joey and Tristan ran up to them.

"We have to do something," she said right as Joey and Tristan entered the water. Yami stood there with a grim look across his face as he stared down at the water with his arms crossed. Soon, Joey and Tristan were up carrying both of them to shore.

Nix collapsed on the ground and coughed the water in her lungs up. The man who had insulted her family was hysterical.

"You crazy bitch!" he shouted at her. "You think this will go unheard? The boss will definitely kill Nina tonight along with her little friend." The man pressed the call button while Yami walked over to him and yanked the phone out of his hand. He looked down at Nix who stared at him in shock while he talked.

"The duel was unsuccessful," he said. "The girl won." Without waiting for anyone to respond to him, he closed the phone and through it on the ground where he smashed his foot against it. Nix stood up and smiled at him.

"Joey and Tristan, will you take this guy to boat house and tie him up?" The guys agreed and carried the guy away. "Tea, you go with them." She followed behind them. Nix walked past him and back up to the dueling area where she gathered up his cards. The cards slipped through her hands as her hands shook and also the water. She placed Dark Magician in the middle where he had been when she found him, but the whole deck exploded. She cursed and knelt down as she began to pick them up once again.

She reached out for Dark Magician, but Yami snatched it away from her before she could do anything. She looked up at him. He hadn't said anything to her for the longest time. She knew he was disappointed, and it really bothered her. He collected his cards and walked down dueling arena. She followed behind him slowly then rushed after him and wrapped her arms around him.

Yami didn't look back at her.

"Yami," she whispered, "Do you still want to dance?"


End file.
